Garrison D&D Sessions

• Index
• World/item notes
• Character notes

SCHEDULED: <2022-04-27 Wed>

SCHEDULED: <2022-05-11 Wed>

• There was a tortured guy hanging on the torturer’s rack - he begged us to kill him
  • We tried but he seemed to be being kept alive magically
  • Pulled a lever and he was plunged into acid or something - we hoped that ended his suffering
• Searched the “warden”’s office
  • Small locked music box with a pattern, and money
• Found unoccupied coffins hidden under beds in a kind of “barracks”
• Went up through main room where we had been partying up to landing above
  • Front door had a forcefield
  • Found clues in the rooms around here
  • Had to fight a load (4?) of giant bats
• One door on the landing had no handle, just four buttons to put a code in
  • We had to use earth, water, air and fire to make the code based on the clues
  • Opened door, ended sesion there

SCHEDULED: <2022-05-18 Wed>

• Went through the door and upstairs, into a room where 5 vampires were dining on 2 bodies
  • One vampire was the head guy - he stayed distant
  • Head guy magically controlled Cyra to attack us (charmed but Tetuel doesn’t know that)
  • Head guy turned into a bat and flew out of an escape hatch in the ceiling
• Found a signed ring with initials “I.V.” (not sure if Tetuel saw this)
• Found a letter
  • To Lord Garrow because of his “reputation for getting matters seen to”
  • There’s been a development in the research
  • “The Genasi and Firbolg are of interest - rare finds”
• The forcefield was gone from the front door so we walked out of the mansion
• Note from “Samuel” after he disapeared from the lounge
  • “Many thanks friends, I would stay but this is not my kind of adventure, however a debt is owed. If in need, draw the thieves’ cant symbol for sanctuary on the side of Cobblestone’s Inn. Signed S”
• Headed into Longhorn
• Found a potion shop run by Lana Banghard
  • She had a bear friend, who enjoyed eating a human heart offered by… one of us
  • Recommended going to the Shaggy Mare for a rest
• Headed to Shaggy Mare
  • Run by Tanya
  • Nearest main city is “The Everlight”
  • Had some food+drink and then went to bed
    • Mordoe slept in the stable

SCHEDULED: <2022-06-09 Thu>

• Sold some bits to the blacksmith at “The Thrice Beaten”
  • Blacksmith is Lars Hammerhead
• Visited general store
  • Run by old gnome, Morty
  • Asked Morty about the manor house
    • Sold recently
    • Seen plenty of people heading there, but hasn’t noticed them coming back
  • Bought a map (See world notes)
• Back at the inn
  • Tanya
    • Husband Tom died in the blood plague
    • Oldish lady, human?
    • Has lost her wedding ring
  • Lyra - lute player
  • Had some food and a long rest
  • Asked Tanya about the mansion
    • Bought by a strange gentleman
    • Sends his boys down to pick up stuff
    • Can’t remember any of their names
    • Magicked?
  • Someone told us the map is made of human skin
    • I tried to make a copy but it was terrible
• Back to Morty’s
  • Went ring shopping but he didn’t seem to have it
  • Mentioned “Sea captains” at Lark’s Cutting
  • Previous warden went a bit mad after his wife died under weird circumstances
• Warden’s office
  • Bell at top, steel door
  • Warden Blacklock is a dwarf
  • Took down our details
    • I said I was from a monastery in Graveholm
  • Previous warden was a good friend of his, as Blacklock was his deputy
    • Lord Almar Sylvan
    • Warden of Larkswood
  • Also doesn’t remember who now owns the manor
  • Everlight is an Elven city
  • Manor was taken over a few months ago after Lord Sylvan’s children died
  • Rumours that graveyard is haunted
• Graveyard - 2 crypts
  • Exhumed graves
  • There are footprints going to the left crypt
  • 2 bodies laying across edge of red circle
    • Summoning? Mordoe confirmed it’s magical
    • Cyra saw that it’s protection magic
    • One body has a knife in their stomach, another has a knife in their hand
  • I tried backing up and throwing a rock into the circle
    • There was a sighing noise and the door slammed closed

SCHEDULED: <2022-06-30 Thu>

• Door had just slammed closed, trapping me, Essence and Cyra in the crypt
• Stone coffins on walls all round
  • Reanimated bodies that look like well-decayed humans attacked from the coffins
• Essence got taken down
• Mordoe and Reginald went to the roof
  • Mordoe got through the hole and walked on the ceiling
  • Regi feather fell down
• Quarterstaff is a versatile weapon so can be used 1 or 2 handed - so I can still grab projectiles!
• We smashed the skeletons up and then took a short rest
• Found a ring with “TH” inscribed that had been on a skeleton, with a note with a red circle
• Headed to the other (right-hand) crypt in the graveyard
  • 3 stone coffins, chest in the centre
  • Smashed door - was barred from the inside
  • Heard a voice when I went near the coffin:
    • “Desecrators! Have you no respect for the dead?”
    • From unknown location
• Roll initiative

SCHEDULED: <2022-08-11 Thu>

• A shadow was hovering around
  • Reginald was throwing daggers at it before the rest of us noticed
  • I accidentally whacked Cyra for 10HP with my quarterstaff
  • I got insta-knocked-out by the shadow, took a load of my strength too
  • Mordoe killed it, Cyra revived me
• Tried to read gravestones
  • “Here lies my darling Anne, 675-684”
    • Current year is 586 A.C. so that date doesn’t make any sense
    • Elves were around before the cataclysm so their date numbering must just start earlier
  • “Samuel’s noble spirit will ever shine brightly in the afterlife, 677-684”
  • “Mary’s laughter will ring out every time, 681-684”
    • Date was missing but we found it later
• Chest in middle has arcane sigil + number combination lock with 3 numbers
  • Password was the ages of the children
  • Contained note, (ring - Cyra didn’t show), bow and arrows
• Note was by Lord Almar Sylvan, the former Warden of Larkswood
  • “Went to the keep in the Darkwood forest”
  • “Evil already living with me”
  • “I beg the heroines and heroes of this world band together to fight the hag and stop her evil plans”
  • Referred to “the farmhouse”
• Went back to the Shaggy Mare to talk to Tanya
  • Same people inside as before
  • Tom’s surname was “Hoe”
    • So the “T.H.” ring was hers! We gave it back
  • Warden disappeared a couple of years ago, after the blood plague
  • “Farmhouse” is what he called the manor/mansion
  • Tanya didn’t know about a keep in the Darkwood Forest
  • Asked about Warden’s wife
    • She died after the blood plague
    • Lord Sylvan was devoted to her
  • I fell asleep in a chair
  • Essence+Regi ran off after Lyra when she bolted
    • Found out that she’s a thief and had stolen Tanya’s ring and sold it to fences
    • Those fences are presumably the people we saw dead in the magic circle
• Leveled up to level 4!
  • Chose dex+con ability score improvement

SCHEDULED: <2022-08-25 Thu>

• Setting off towards Lark’s Cutting
• First day 20 miles
  • Set up a tent
  • Cyra tried to pet a raccoon during the night but just scared it
  • Started raining heavily
  • Long rest, Mordoe did not sleep well so has 1 level of exhaustion
• Set off again towards Lark’s Cutting
• A tree had been cut down across the path
• 6 crossbow archers shot down at us
• Headbutted one to death!
• 3 hidden people popped up
  • One magic
  • One scimitar
  • One also scimitar?
• Magic dude is “Tom” - after I yelled at him “Who the hell are you?” (meaning the group)
  • Told me he was going to leave and then didn’t so he got killed too
• Cyra got charmed again, I just avoided her
• Killed almost everyone, one guy was frightened so just ran off
• Searched Tom the mage
  • 24G 10S 30C
  • Wooden staff with birds beautifully carved on it - Mordoe/Cyra detected that it was “conjuration magic”
    • “Staff of birdcalls” - passed it over to Mordoe
• They were just wearing leather armour, no uniform
• Cyra found a jar of endless smoke and tried to drink it
• Regi found a recipe for chicken soup (that had a secret message encoded in it, but he didn’t share it)
• One guy ran off so we need to move in case he gets reinforcements!

SCHEDULED: <2022-09-15 Thu>

• Just finished fight + searching bodies
• Rested against fallen tree (short rest) then continued towards Lark’s Cutting
• Came up to Lark’s Cutting
  • Armoured gatekeepers visible in distance on gatehouse
  • Kobold attack
    • 2 girls (children) running around in front of the gatehouse
    • Heard a yapping noise
    • A group of bipedal creatures covered in fur and scales grabbed one girl and ran off into the woods faster than I could keep up
    • Second girl made it to the gatehouse and we heard her talking to the guards
      • The one they grabbed was “Jamie”
      • The one who survived is “Jessie” - sister of Jamie
    • The guard told us to talk to Father Huel at the Church of the Dawnfather
• Walking through the town, people have harried expressions
• There are a few stone buildings, one looks like the church. The rest are wood with thatched roofs
• We headed to the church to meet Father Huel
  • Father Huel is JACKED and carrying a beautiful staff
  • Confirmed he is the guardian of Jessie and Jamie
  • Jessie will have been taken to Charis Ulrich (sp?), head of the Woodsmen’s Guild, master of the town
    • Father Huel described him as a “pompous twat”
  • Woodsmen’s guild won’t send guards outside the town
  • The creatures are doglike, “maybe kobolds”
  • Has heard rumours of a keep in the forest
  • Father Huel used to be a lumberjack
    • He spotted an incredible tree in the forest and thought it would be an excellent one to cut down
    • Just as he was about to, he heard the voice of the Dawnfather not to cut down the whole thing, but to take only a cutting
    • Carved that cutting into his fancy staff and became a priest of the Dawnfather
  • 4-5 people have been taken by the kobolds over the last 6 weeks
  • Pressed his hand on each of us in turn, making our entire body glow and giving each the blessing of the Dawnfather (long rest)
  • “Be wary” of the town guard
    • There are lumberjacks who still keep the old ways, particularly Tom Farrell
      • “Tom will come back with the falling light”
  • Charis became head of the woodsmen’s guild because of his money/connections, when Tom Farrell probably should have
  • Father Huel was generally not a fan of the way the town is going
• I left my backpack with some of my stuff
• We left the church
  • Guards “casually standing around” looked at us and walked away - we were clearly being watched
  • Gate guard charged 6sp toll, “gate closes at 7”
    • Seemed very pleased we didn’t bother haggling with him
• Mordoe found the trail of kobolds
  • Tracked in for 2 hours
  • Forest started inflicting exhaustion (because of the fear and constant looking around) on everyone except Cyra+Tetuel
  • Another hour of tracking
  • Perceptive people spotted a figure darting between the trees (not a kobold)
  • Reached a 3-way fork
    • Tracks in all three directions but the right fork seemed the freshest and had fur left around it
  • Long golden hair caught in the brambles told us we were probably on the right track
• Came across a broken keep in a large clearing
  • 15ft stone wall surrounding it, 120ft diameter, partially overgrown, ~300ft from there to the edges of the clearing
  • Old gatehouse, gate ripped apart and all bent inwards by something large
  • Cyra recognised it as a fallen old outpost of Crestfall
    • Used to control lands around the city several hundred years ago
  • Surrounded by low vines (~waist height, easy to walk through)
• Most of us tried to sneak up while Cyra walked straight at them
  • We ended up making a lot of noise and alerting the 2 guard kobolds
  • Guards rang a gong, then both attacked Cyra
  • Old kobold warlock came out, started throwing fire at Cyra
  • Heavily armoured kobold with a spear and shield came out, threw a spear at Cyra
  • More extras appeared
• Cyra opened the bottle of endless smoke and was immediately engulfed in a 60ft radius cloud
  • I was near the edge of that smoke and managed to make my way to the wall of the keep and ready an attack
  • Cyra stopped the smoke but it takes 10 minutes to dissipate
  • It turned out the kobolds could still find us in the smoke using their sense of smell
  • Lots more kobolds appeared in groups
  • I disengaged from the kobold attacking me, exited the smoke and ran towards Regi who was surrounded
  • Dropped my first quarterstaff, threw my dagger, missed, lost both
  • Essence got knocked out with an acid chromatic orb, and the vines closed around him
    • Mordoe found him, did cure wounds
  • Mordoe then got knocked out by another acid chromatic orb and engulfed too
  • I tried to find Essence in the vines, and fell over and got restrained by vines too
  • Eventually we all got out and conscious
• Meanwhile in the smoke
  • Cyra fought off the warlock and spear dude well, but eventually got taken down and engulfed by the vines
  • When they stepped out of the smoke, we killed the sorceror and the spear guy
  • Cyra died in the vines and smoke
  • Holding onto a rope and all searching, we eventually found her body and cut her free

SCHEDULED: <2022-10-06 Thu>

• Decided to leave Cyra’s body near the gatehouse, inside the castle
  • Covered her body with a bedroll
  • Essence took her backpack so it wouldn’t get looted
• Short rest inside/near the gatehouse - now about midnight
• The keep is straight ahead, with a door in front which was ajar
  • Essence and Tetuel went round keep and didn’t see an alternative door
  • Looked in through the door
    • Piles of dirty cloths
    • Smouldering fire in the centre of the room
    • It stinks of kobold
    • Broken staircase at the back leading up, but above it’s boarded up with wooden boards level with the floor above.
    • Stone structure at rear
  • Essence walked around invisible but there didn’t appear to be a threat
  • Tetuel lit a torch in the fire in the centre so we could inspect stuff better
• In the fireplace at the edge, 2 flagstones were wonky
  • Lifted them and there was a dark passage with a couple of rungs below, but the rungs stopped
  • Essence jumped down and got hurt (but stayed invisible)
  • There was a rope in the fireplace, so I threw it down and the rest of us climbed down
• Passageway at the bottom, 9ft wide + high
  • Footprints on the ground
  • 3 way fork 60ft ahead
  • Essence stepped on a mine just as Tetuel called for him to stop
    • Regi+Essence managed to stack rocks on top of it without it exploding
  • Moved on to the fork, went straight ahead
    • Mordoe sensed a tripwire with a “pointy” trap, Essence disabled it
  • Door ahead, slightly ajar
    • Draconic voices inside, coming towards us, dragging something (presumably Jamie)
    • We went back to the fork to ambush them, got a slightly look down the other paths
    • Tetuel threw down caltrops
    • A kobold came out, dragging Jamie, but noticed that the tripwire was disarmed and held a knife to her throat.
      • But then walked into the caltrops, where Essence promptly cast Hold Person
      • Tetuel grabbed Jamie and Mordoe bonked the kobold, killing him
• Inside the room
  • Pit in the centre, with 6 kobolds around it
  • 2 orcs in chairs nearer the back of the room
  • Snarling noises coming from the pit
• We burst in and started combat with a surprise round
  • The kobolds had slings and stones, as well as swords
• In the pit, Sophia’s new (unknown) character is fighting a tiger
  • Cast Speak with Animals, and tried to persuade it to attack the orcs instead. It allowed her to leave
  • She shot a roped arrow at a kobold and used it to climb out
  • We saw a hooded youngish human climb out of the pit and throw the kobold back into the pit
• The big orc hits HARD (e.g. one hit was 20 damage)
  • After he got taken down, the tiger sprang out and began to eat him
  • Tetuel speared the other orc’s heart with his quarterstaff and somehow he got back up
  • Regi and Essence got taken down - Regi by the tiger and Essence by the big orc or maybe a kobold
• The tiger decided not to eat us (for now)
  • Revealed that its name is Tony but it didn’t like that - would prefer Claude
• We healed Regi and Essence back up a little
• Took out the last couple of kobolds
• One bolted door remaining - we opened it
  • 2 more young children (8 or 9) inside, bolted out towards Sophia’s character, shouting “Jackie!”
    • They seemed to already know them.
  • “Jackie” is now their childminder (clinging to their legs)
• Don’t want to take a short rest with the tiger - going to check out the other 2 passages
• (Sophia’s character is called Jack Jackson, but hasn’t introduced themself yet)

SCHEDULED: <2022-10-20 Thu>

• Jack says the 2 other kids we found are Pip and Squeak
• Tetuel + Essence looked down the left fork - just cobwebs and a pile of bones
  • Some of the bones are fresh, some are very small (likely human)
    • We decided these were probably the other kidnapped people
• Mordoe went down the right fork and found it wiggled up to a door about 180ft away
  • Disturbed two small kobolds cutting up meat
  • Mordoe ran back to tell us
• We snuck back (leaving Essence to protect the children) and found the door was now closed
  • Regi spoke to them in draconic, convincing them Mordoe was there as food and he needed help
  • When they opened the door, Mordoe rushed them and squashed them, Jack shot one and Regi stabbed one
• Searched the room, which was a kitchen / dining room
  • Found some knives and meat
  • In a cupboard to the right, two small bodies were hanging on hooks, one missing a leg
    • Jack found them, recognised that they were the missng children from the town, and threw up
• Jack went back to search the bodies in the room where we fought the kobolds+orcs
  • 1 red large chainmail, a spear, a wickedly sharp axe, meat, 15GP, slings, a few daggers
• We went to leave, Claw asked us to get him out too
  • He held a kid down with his claw as a hostage to make sure we took him
  • We lifted the two kids up on a rope, then managed to pull Claw up, then Jack
• Jack untied the tiger and it sprinted out the door
• We had a chat on the way back
  • We introduced ourselves, Essence introduced himself to Jack as Brian
  • I asked about Woodsmen’s Guild
    • Jack knew basically the same as Father Huel did about Lark’s Cutting
    • Charis took over, paid off woodsmen
      • Started off with paying everyone even if injured, so was well received to start with
      • Lumberjacks who disagreed were made to leave the town
  • Jack’s father is also Jack Jackson, owns an inn
  • Jack thinks there are riverboats that go towards the big city (Crestfall)
• We arrived at the Lark’s Cutting gate at about dawn
  • The guards hesitantly let us in (with Jack pointing out we’re bringing back the kids) and fetched Charis (with his two half-orc bodyguards)
  • Charis was pissy (and Tetuel felt confrontational) but when the townspeople began gathering and realised we’d brought back the children, he had to relent
  • Pip and Squeak ran off
  • Jack told the townspeople that Gary and Jen didn’t make it out (the bodies we found in the kitchen)
• Decided to head to Father Huel with Jamie
  • Father Huel said he can put Cyra to rest
    • Notices her amulet of Celestian
  • “We’ve dealt with tigers before”
  • Jessie+Jamie’s parents are missing, Father Huel asked us to find them
    • Elaine and Darrel were shipping merchants
    • They were hired to take someone unknown upriver towards the mountains, and should have been back a while ago
      • (First?) Destination was a town called Durgarshope
    • They usually leave Jessie+Jamie with Father Huel while they’re away
  • Asked about where to get a map
    • Madame Ysir’s Wonderful Wares, maybe - has potions too
    • Armorer - The Heavy Hand, run by a dwarf called Trojan Backhand
    • Horse stuff - Mack’s Tacks, run by Mack
    • Inn - Jack’s Rest - run by Jack and Amordella
  • Father Huel gives us 100GP as a downpayment, will match it for returning with J+J’s parents
• Regi revealed that the chicken soup note found with the bandits was a bounty on his head from Durgar’s Hope
  • 100GP dead, 150GP alive
  • “Crystal’s Polish” is mentioned in the bounty as the location to take him to
• Father Huel will cremate Cyra at the end of the day
  • Offered us her stuff - Essence went through it to bring back to us
  • Essence gave Regi her dagger but he threw it away immediately (because of his cursed dagger, but we don’t know that)
    • I grabbed it from where it was sticking out the wall
• Jack kept the basement loot for now
• We headed to Jack’s Rest, Jack’s parents’ inn
  • Nice 2-storey inn, beautifully handcrafted wooden building
  • The sign has axes playing the piano lined with mugs of ale
  • Slow roasting meat on the fire, smell of bread in the kitchen
  • Piano in the corner - most of us haven’t come across one before
  • Jack (the dad) is hench, vaguely Orcish
    • Inherited inn from Jack the Elder, from his father Jack, from his father Jack who built it
  • Amordella is a wood elf
  • Had a conversation with Jack’s parents
• Long rest in inn until late afternoon
• Jack recognised Tom Farrell in the inn
  • Annoyed about Charis putting in another tax for more guards
  • A little bit drunk
  • Tetuel asked him what “keeping the old ways” means
    • His dad was the old guildmaster
    • Has been around for a long time
    • We noticed he’s not entirely human
• Shopping time!
  • The Heavy Hand
    • Bought an extra QS for 2 silver
    • The others bought and sold some arms and armour
  • Madame Ysir’s Wonderful Wares
    • A purple shop, with a sign of magic coming out of a bag
    • Madame Ysir is a short gnome in purple robes
    • Bought 2 health potions for 105, then Mordoe bought 2 for 110 - at that point we might as well have just bought her set of 5 for 240
    • She has plenty of other potions
      • Water breathing
      • Fire protection
      • Potion of cold protection (might be useful in the mountains)
      • Antitoxin 75GP - bought one for the party
    • Madame Ysir wants the heart of a centaur
      • We’ve heard stories about them but haven’t encountered them
      • Essence accepted the contract for all of us (without realising it)
        • Not required to be our main priority but must be in what she considers a “timely manner”
      • Centaurs are fae, we don’t know much more than that
• Side note - looks like the spear from the keep could be useful for Tetuel and he could use it
• Headed towards church of the Dawnfather for dusk
  • Father Huel has prepared a room inside with a large pyre
  • We each said a few words
  • Essence lit the pyre - it rapidly burned with the smell of incense
  • Burned down to embers in about half an hour, then we left
• Back to Jack’s Rest
  • We chose the “peachy” ale, and ate some meat, bread and cheese
  • Tom came over for a chat
    • Said to us “You did right by her”
    • “If Charis were to disappear, I can’t say people would be upset”
    • Why hasn’t he taken care of Charis?
      • “We don’t fight each other, that is not the way”
    • Doesn’t know where Charis gets his guards from
      • The mayor would know, but stays on his estate
        • Albard Trovoski
        • Hasn’t seen him in a long time
  • Essence asked why the rest of us were at the manor
    • He was called (kept it vague)
    • Mordoe got a letter in his clan house
    • Regi was paid to perform there
    • Tetuel found the letter in his pack one morning
  • Tried to convince Jack to ask their mum to let them leave
  • Jack (the dad) offered us pipes to smoke - Essence + Tetuel took them
    • Tetuel rolled a nat 20, blew out fancy stream of smoke ending in a ring
    • Essence choked on the smoke
  • Jack told their parents they’re leaving
    • Amordella did not take it well and stormed off upstairs
    • Jack (dad) gave Jack (child) his axe, saying he was going to do it anyway - Jack (child) gave him the extremely sharp axe from the keep in return (it wasn’t as good anyway)
• Back to bed
• In the morning, Essence said we need a name
  • Mordoe, immediately: “Jackson 5”

SCHEDULED: <2022-11-10 Thu>

• Headed down to the port
  • Some wooden docks
  • Small house by the river - harbourmaster’s house
    • Jack knocked on the door and called for Matthew
    • Matthew is a gruff looking human with salt+pepper hair and leathery skin
    • Harbourmaster recommended we try the one boat that’s docked in the harbour
• We headed out to the boat
  • The River Raven, captained by Tamil Glove
  • 40ft long, twin sail, figurehead is roughly carved with raven hair
  • 2 sailors on deck doing stuff - called for captain
  • Captain Tamil Glove hopped down from above
    • Big black hat with giant red feather, 2 peg legs (carved from part of the boat)
    • Talks to (and feeds) a parrot on his shoulder Polly, which doesn’t seem to exist
      • Also strokes a non-existent beard
  • Captain says it’s 7-10 days to Durgarshope, depending on conditions
    • We agreed on 100GP now, 100GP halfway
• We set sail after a couple of hours
  • Stowed kit in a crate at the front of the boat
  • Nowhere to actually sleep below decks - we’ll have to sleep on the deck
    • It’s about autumn now - not too cold yet
  • Captain disappeared up to the crow’s nest once we were underway
    • Shimmied straight up a rope despite his two peg legs
  • More sailors came up - total 3 deckhands and 1 steersman
• Essence explored the boat
  • Crew quarters and galley at the back
  • Talked to the kid, who caught a fish
    • “Smiler” because he’s smiley
    • Says first mate is Nathaniel
    • Missing 2 fingers on one hand for stealing
    • Has a full on west country voice
• At night time, Smiler threw us a tarp and we pitched it + set up underneath
  • Used my spare staff and rope
  • The food is hard cheese and bread for breakfast and lunch, gravy+potatoes+fish for dinner
• Day 2: Everything smells like rotting fish
  • Then the fish we were served tasted like strawberries?
  • Nathaniel says that sometimes happens round here
  • Jack volunteered to cook
• Day 3: Passed by a small island with a crucified body on it
  • The crew stayed silent and took their hats off in respect
  • Captain said “And that’s whay happens to pirates”
• Day 4: First mate on deck says “Eyes up!”
  • “Things coming up from the deep”
  • Here the river is wide enough to not see land
  • Bits of another boat are floating
    • We take a detour to investigate
    • Found a cove with 2 caves
    • The captain reveals he found the name plank from Darrel+Elaine’s boat floating in the water
      • “The Winding Eel” - sounds about right to Jack
  • We have a rowboat which seats 6 people (at a squeeze)
    • We got suspicious they were going to leave us, but they sent in a crewman “Harry” with us
    • Boat sits very low in the water
• We chose the right cave
  • Small buildings inside, lanterns, dock, 2 lookouts walking around
    • The two guards look pretty unkempt but are armed
  • Mordoe cast Pass Without Trace on us
  • There is a boat already at the dock - missing its name
  • Jack wanted to shoot them, but I wanted to sneak in. Essence readied an Eldritch Blast
    • Killed first sentry, second alerted the others by shouting that they’re under attack
  • A guy wearing a bandana and earring comes out of the first building - he has a bow and blows a horn
  • 4 crossbowmen also come out and start shooting
  • The captain threw some sort of alchemical fire thing, which accidentally landed at the end of the dock and started spreading fire
  • We take 3 down, then Tetuel jumped onto the dock and knocked the captain prone
  • Took everyone else out, Mordoe grappled the captain. We tried and failed to intimidate him and knock him out
  • Got bardic inspiration from Regi - he played “ABC” on his kazoo
  • Tetuel pushed into the first building alone
    • 3 doors going off, 2 open
      • Beds in first
      • Second is locked, smashed it open
      • Third is galley
    • The locked room was an office with maps, notes and wine
      • Grabbed an armful of maps and notes and ran out
  • Meanwhile, outside:
    • Jack threw water on the fire and it spread faster
    • Essence got taken down by the captain, dragged away and revived by Mordoe
    • Jack cut one mooring rope on the boat, the other burned away
  • Tetuel headed to the second building
    • High windows, heavily barred door
    • Tried to kick door in but failed (it’s really strong)
    • Regi found 3 keys on the captain’s body
      • I tried the first key but no luck
• To be continued…

SCHEDULED: <2022-11-23 Wed>

• Picking up on the burning dock…
  • Tetuel is still carrying papers from the pirate captain’s office
• Essence carried the dead captain up to the boat
• Regi grabbed the keys from Tetuel, found the right one and opened the door of the cell
  • Inside were 2 women drugged and with hands bound
  • “A” is dirty but with no obvious wounds, and is well dressed
  • “B” is battered and wearing a sailor outfit
• Tetuel brought lady A to the rear of the boat, tied a rope into a harness around her, and she was hauled up by Essence and Jack
• Jack tied another rope to the boat and left it dangling onto the dock
• Regi carried lady B to the boat, Mordoe cast spider climb and grabbed B, walking up the side of the boat
  • Regi climbed Jack’s tied rope and got onto the boat
• Tetuel pushed rear of boat away from the dock, Essence and Regi started pushing the boat away from further forward with staves stored on the boat
• As the boat drifted away, Tetuel jumped all the way to the boat and grabbed the rope, Mordoe came back down to help him up
• We managed to push the boat out of the cave using the poles
• As we came out of the cave, we saw that the River Raven appeared to be under attack! It’s around 1000ft away
  • A large bird (giant vulture) was swooping down on it, and we also saw a large tentacle rise out of the water and swat at the bird from under Tamil’s ship
• Jack discovered a ballista, Regi found the mechanism to raise it
• Tetuel checked on the women on the rear deck and determined that they weren’t dead
• Essence searched belowdecks and found it was pretty much looted
• Mordoe donned the pirate captain’s hat
• Regi raised the ballista, fired it at the bird, missing and shooting a hole in the River Raven’s sail
• A second giant bird joined the first
• Tetuel reloaded the ballista, Regi fired it and only hit a sail again
• Jack hit one vulture with an arrow, and then it approached. Essence hit it with an Eldritch Blast and it was looking rough.
• A giant octopus climbed the port (left) side of the boat and attacked Essence. Regi shot it with the ballista
• Another giant octopus climbed the right side of the boat and immediately almost knocked Tetuel out
  • Luckily he’s a half orc and his relentless endurance saved him
  • Tetuel was grappled by its tentacles, though, so Mordoe created a healing deer spirit (1D6 per turn)
• Essence took down the first vulture, the other went up to Harry and began to attack him
• Tetuel tried and failed to escape the octopus’ grapple, Regi threw a dagger at it and heated the metal
  • Tetuel took both his potions in order to not die
  • The octopus dragged Tetuel into the water and swam off, clearly having taken more damage than it would like
• To be continued…

SCHEDULED: <2023-01-13 Fri>

• Starting on the boat, one octopus left with Jack and Essence, one vulture left with Harry the sailor
  • Vulture took Harry down and flew off to a safe distance
• Tetuel tried repeatedly to get back onto the boat by grabbing the gunwales and repeatedly failed
• The remaining octopus took Jack down while squeezing them, Regi healed Jack a bit
• The octopus that dragged Tetuel off the boat swam round to its friend, next to Jack and Essence
• Mordoe got taken down by the vulture after stabilising Harry (messing with its meal)
• Essence got restrained but misty stepped over to Mordoe and skewered the vulture, then eldritch blasted one octopus
• Jack chopped the remaining octopus in half
• Combat over
• Jack and Regi helped Tetuel out of the water
• Jack(?) revived Harry, and he eventually pullsed us up next to the River Raven
  • Captain Tamil Glove is still on the River Raven, and Harry tied us to it before hopping over to the other ship
• Tetuel went to talk to the women - they were coming around from being drugged
  • The sailor woman IS Elaine!
    • She says that when they got here the pirates were using the giant octopuses to distract them, and one dragged Darrel overboard
    • Reveals that this is her ship, the Winding Eel
  • The posh lady is very indignant and annoyed at the delay
• Captain Tamil Glove sets off immediately in the River Raven, leaving us behind - luckily we didn’t pay him for the second half of the journey!
• Elaine asks for a favour - help to take the lady upriver (her and Darrel’s original task)
• Elaine dons her captain’s hat and starts giving orders
  • Lets Jack go to bed
  • Hands Regi a mop and bucket
  • Essence tries to pretend he’s a captain and Elaine tells him to drop anchor, which he obviously has no idea how to do
• Elaine drops anchor and we all head to bed (long rest) while the lady continues complaining
• The ship has been completely restored while we slept - presumably by the lady?
• The fancy lady interrogates us, and dispels Essence’s disguise (Brian)
  • The fancy lady is 5ft tall with grey hair
  • She asks very probing questions, is interested in Jack’s elven mother Amordella
  • Does some sort of magical scan on each of us
  • Finally she introduces herself as Margaret Lefay, a merchant who trades in rare artefacts. Doesn’t butcher creatures if she can help it
  • Mordoe asks about centaur hearts - Margaret says it’s in the centre of the humanoid part’s chest
  • Margaret gives Regi her card - says to call her he needs to speak her name while holding it up, and she will contact him
• Elaine sets Regi to cooking, Tetuel to anchor, Mordoe to sails, Jack to crow’s nest, Essence to hold the rudder straight. Mordoe climbs up, carrying Jack
• We reach land - a town at the top of a tall cliff. Durgarshope!
  • There are contraptions to haul stuff up the cliff - would cost 20GP each to get the boat hauled up, or we could just walk. We chose to walk
• Margaret says she has already paid us for saving her - she has given us the privilege of contacting her. “Lesser mortals have died for the privilege”
  • She offers to take away Regi’s bounty for a fee using her connections, we just assume it’d be too expensive
• Essence very badly disguises Regi as “a fair Elvish maiden”
• Elaine says bye and goes to find a crew, says she’ll set off for Lark’s Cutting in 4 days and will look for us before she goes
• The town is squarish, surrounded by a 25ft stone wall with towers, dwarf guards wearing heavy metal armour. There are mountains all around, and all trees have been removed nearby (or perhaps there never were any)
• A little gnome called Trix bothers us to hire her as a guide
  • Wearing a grey cloak, with ginger hair and bright green eyes
• The guard at the gate recommends a guide - Mordoe called Trix over and he hurriedly gave up and let us through rather than talk to Trix for any longer than necessary
  • Mordoe gives Trix 2GP to show us around for the day (overpaying!)
• The town looks basically like a ghost town, with identical stone buildings and nobody out in the streets
  • Trix explains that people work in the mine all day until the sound of the horn. When you hear the horn “it’s party time”
  • If you don’t work in the mine you’re basically shunned (like Trix)
• Currently mid morning, so we head to the work board first - Trix takes us there. Currently there are 3 contracts up:
  • “Stop the stone killer dead” - 300GP reward, due in 2 days, 3 miles outside of town
  • “Cull the crocs” - 25gp/head, at the swamp 2 miles inland
  • “Whack a wolf” - 25gp/pelt, in the woods 4 hours south towards Lark’s Cutting
• Tetuel checked the papers from the cave down his top - at least some are still legible
• Trix says Crystal’s Polish is “well dodge”
• Trix’s summary of the inns in the town:
  • The Copper Spigot - bit of a dive, cheap and cheerful
  • The Dancing Queen - (didn’t write down what she said about this but it sounded good to us)
  • The Dueling Bard - a bit fancy
  • Artificer’s Retreat - very expensive and fancy, we wouldn’t even be let in without new clothes
• We head into the garrison to ask about the bounties. Inside is an armoured dwarf behind a desk.
  • The dwarf is Captain Grumble
    • Gruff but proud of his alliterative wordplay
    • Annoyed that he’s stuck at a desk these days
  • We asked him about the stone killer
    • People have been heading out and disappearing - only one survivor has returned. She returned raving about a killer on the loose attacking from the bushes, and something about stone
      • The person may have been nobility - “uppity folk”
    • Some rather affluent figures have been taken so there’s a good bounty on it
    • 1-1.5 hours into the woods
    • Find out what the killer did, bring back some proof. Dead is preferred.
  • Whack a wolf
    • Follow the path down to a small farming village having trouble with wolves
    • The farms are further to the south than the stone killer
• We asked Trix about magical shops
  • Unicorn’s Alchemy
  • Edwin’s Sorceror’s [something]
  • Berteph’s Wands
• Mine owners - council runs everything. Trix knows where the “sphere of governance” is - a central circular room with doors off it
• Mordoe went back in to check with Captain Grumble who reported the stone killer
  • He had to check his records because he’s been busy - “there’s a bit of a criminal syndicate going on in the town” - they operate out of the Crystal’s Polish.
  • Person who reported it is Lana Zvenikov
• Trix showed us to the sphere of governance
  • A black opening in the mountainside with a giant open steel door, guards standing around
  • Inside a guy was walking around with notes, managing moving materials around (iron and coal)
  • Trix says we need to get past him to get to the sphere of governance
    • She tells him we’re investigating a murder - he says Jack can go in for 5 minutes with Trix
• Inside (only Jack sees but relays to us later)
  • Beautiful stone, jewels, mosaic
  • Goliath guards in full plate armour standing by each door out of the central room
  • Jack+Trix head to civil enquiries
    • The lady there tells a guy to retrieve Lana from the infirmary, he wheels her over
  • Lana:
    • Whispered “it was terrible, it was terrible, it was terrible, it was terrible, it was terrible” before even saying hello - she seems very perturbed
    • She didn’t actually see the killer - was in her carriage being taken for her “daily exercises” in the woods, where she gets pulled around in a carriage for fresh air
    • She heard screaming and got annoyed at being disturbed, started banging on the door with her cane
      • Noted that her cane went missing during the ordeal - a black cane (or top) with her initials on the top
    • She rapped the door with her cane and called for her driver Thomas to stop the screaming. Instead the screaming stopped, the carriage crashed and she got thrown about
      • Thomas did nothing (presumably dead)
    • Pushed the door open and Thomas was “horizontal” (injured/dead)
    • Had six horses pulling her carriage - first four were dead, fifth was shaking, sixth was named Snowflake. She unhooked Snowflake
    • Heard a noise like something stuck in the back of someone’s throat, horse started panicking. Snowflake took off, carrying her back to town where she reported it to Captain Grumble.
    • She suggested following the tracks of her horses and carriage
    • This happened 2 or 3 days ago
    • Jack said their hat is being repaired and Lana made her bellboy give them the bellboy’s hat. It’s made for a gnome, but it’s clearly too small
• Jack heads back out and covers the relevant points as we walk back through the town
• Trix takes us to the potion shop - Unicorn’s Alchemy
  • Plenty of business going on around here
  • The signpost has a bubbling cauldron, inside is a tiled mosaic floor and a LOT of toads between all the jars and bottles
  • The shopkeeper is a thin female halfling
  • Potions of healing 50GP, also potions of protection (invisible protective field that absorbs damage, or certain energies), hiding from evil spirits, climbing
    • Also has “something very special”, but judges it to be too expensive for us
  • Mordoe asks about the stone killer, maybe being turned to stone - “one could become stone, as a sort of petrification process” - wasting disease that turns you into stone
  • Willing to pay 1GP for centaur hair (mane) - must be plucked not cut
  • Tetuel bought a potion of healing
  • When the party started asking too many detailed questions about centaurs, the toads all croaked in unison and the shopkeeper asked us to leave
• Mordoe asked Trix who her grandfather is, since a few people have asked about him
  • He’s an inventor - we’d like to meet him when we come back
• We decide to get going to find the stone killer, setting off around lunchtime
  • We come to a fork where both ways have horse and cart tracks - left is cards heading out, right is carts heading back
    • We take the left fork and Jack finds carriage tracks heading in the right direction with the right age
  • We travel for another 20-30 minutes, trees start to build up, we see some stones ahead with a broken carriage next to the stones
  • It’s starting to rain but Jack’s skills mean we’re not slowed down
  • There are grey stones fallen over, a wheel of the cart is smashed in, and there are a bunch of rocks next to the carriage
  • Smatterings of blood here and there
  • The rocks next to the cart seem smashed up, some have straps attached - Jack realises they’re reins
    • They realise the rocks are vaguely horse shaped, turns one over and it has someone’s face on it
• Behind us we hear a grunting noise. To be continued!

SCHEDULED: <2023-01-26 Thu>

• Standing by the cart with petrified horses and driver, had just heard a grunting noise near us
• Jack cast Speak with Animals, Tetuel turned around and looked
• Tetuel saw a big hulking blue-grey creature that didn’t look like it had noticed us yet
• Jack called out “HI THERE!” and startled it
  • It ran towards Jack and attempted to trample them but missed
  • It’s a big bull-like thing - snorting with glowing eyes
  • Attacked Jack again, hitting hard and throwing them!
  • The bull smashed a statue and ran away into the bush
  • As it ran away Jack heard it say “STAY AWAY FROM ME”
  • Didn’t look natural at all, massive chunk of muscle
• Regi healed Jack up a little
• Essence started to run off after it, then Jack started tracking it and the rest of us caught up
• Break in the trees ahead - tall maze of giant mushrooms
• Regi spots small particles by the gills of the mushrooms - spores?
  • Mordoe recognises that these mushrooms are natural, says they’re not poisonous (spores or body)
  • Not sure why they’ve grown so huge, usually these are just large mushrooms you’d put in soup
  • Essence tries cutting and eating a chunk - it tastes like mushroom, with a faint taste of pee. Probably should have cleaned it.
• Jack makes a bright paste from some plants gathered nearby to mark the way and stealthily guides us through the mushroom maze, picking up the trail on the other side
• We reach a point where the trail is covered in thick vines. They look natural - Jack gets us through
• There’s a large fallen tree resting precariously on a stump where it’s been cut. It has a small gap underneath that we crawl under, Mordoe nearly dislodging it!
• The trail shows the bull has started to slow down. It opens up, then becomes overgrown
  • Jack and Essence get scratched up by poisonous vines, blinded
  • They try pouring water on themselves to get the stuff out of their eyes - Jack succeeds but Essence is still blind
  • Mordoe gives Essence a piggyback
• Jack picks up the trail again and sees a cliff in the distance, before getting hoisted up by their foot into the air - a trap!
  • Hanging from their foot, they reach up and cut themselves down - landing on Tetuel who was trying to catch them
• Essence’s vision starts to come back but he doesn’t let Mordoe know this
• We reach the foot of the cliff - ~40ft high, black rock. The rock is pretty hard and looks unusual - not coal
  • Jack spots an opening in the rock face ~15ft up and can see where the bull climbed up to it
  • Jack climbs up and sees it’s a tunnel. Tetuel climbs up and they throw down a rope to help the others up
  • Afterwards, Tetuel ties a ~6ft circumference loop on the end of the rope before putting it away
• Mordoe casts Pass Without Trace and we head in, Jack first then Tetuel, Mordoe, Regi, Essence
• The ceiling comes down, then suddenly opens back up
  • It’s pitch black
  • Jack and Essence light torches, showing a large chamber ahead of us with a large statue of a person on the other side
  • The person is topless with antlers, and is flanked by a wolf and a rabbit
• There’s a riddle carved on the wall next to the statue
  • Eight appear before your eyes, and eight remain in schooled disguise, avoid all magic in this room, lest reckless steps ensure your doom
• On the floor is a grid of huge tiles with letters on them:
  • NUWBEMUEFNHB
  • EINHATGCEMIT
  • TCDGMRMONALI
  • AGIAMAANCGLO
  • OCVGENGJHIUI
  • CMIMASIUACSM
  • ITNGAMCRNGIE
  • GOABJURATION
  • AITEGTMTMMNG
  • MGAIMAGIEAAM
  • EVOCATIONGGA
  • AINOBITNTIMG
  • GNECROMANCYI
  • CIGAMNIGAMNC
  • Based on the riddle we figure out:
    • There are 8 occurrences of “magic”, some backwards
    • There are 8 names of schools of magic
      • Evocation, necromancy, divination, enchantment, abjuration, conjuration, illusion, transmutation
  • Jack steps on one of the schools of magic and we hear the hiss of poison gas flowing in above them
  • Mordoe tries casting shillelagh and also gets gassed a little
• Tetuel tries the path of least resistance along the right side, makes it across and looks at the statue
  • It’s a hulking man with antlers, his open hand outstretched. The other is closed.
  • Nothing in his hands - Tetuel touches his open hand
  • The hand gives, arm clicks and all of the floor tiles settle down, deactivated
  • The statue slides to the right, revealing an archway
  • We hear the bull, see glowing eyes in the darkness
• Roll initiative
  • Regi inspires Tetuel, Mordoe climbs up the wall to avoid getting hit
  • Essence eldritch blasts it but doesn’t hit it hard enough
  • The bull breathes gas at Tetuel and Essence, Tetuel waves it off with his staff but Essence feels himself start to turn to stone
  • Mordoe casts frostbite on the bull, giving it disadvantage on its next attack
  • Jack shot a fire arrow at it (first time trying them) - it hit, then flames erupted around it for an extra D8 damage
  • Essence managed to share off the petrification
  • Tetuel got taken down, relentless endurance got him back up long enough to run away and heal
  • Gradually whittled away at the bull’s health
  • The bull breathes gas again at Tetuel and Mordoe. Both start freezing, restrained
  • Mordoe manages to strike the final blow with frostbite, it rears up and its jaw dropps off
• Looking around after killing it
  • Essence looks into the bull’s chamber - there’s a small plinth made of two hands facing outward with wrists together
    • Jack tries touching the weird hands thing, nothing happens
  • Mordoe and Tetuel manage to throw off the petrification
  • The bull’s body melts down, revealing a humanoid body - dead, with wounds and scorch marks
    • A naked gnomish man
    • Wearing two pieces of jewellery
      • Gold ring on one finger
      • Jade necklace
    • Jack takes the jewellery, fails a WIS check and refuses to hand it over to Mordoe. Puts it in their backpack
    • Mordoe bundles up the body into his bedroll as evidence
  • We head back to the entrance for a short rest - there’s a blue flash and the statue slides back across the door
    • Regi plays a song of rest
• Jack brings us back to the cart
  • Mordoe grabs a big chunk of mushroom
  • Jack finds Lana’s cane
  • Essence tries to lift a stone horse head, fails - Mordoe grabs it instead (for evidence)
  • Regi sees more carriage tracks going ahead, we follow them - just went in a circle (Lana’s “exercises”)
  • The carriage has Lana’s crest on it, “L Z” - Tetuel takes the letters as evidence, prying them off
• Mordoe wild shapes into a wild horse, we load up the cart with the gnome, Thomas’ head+body and Mordoe’s stuff and head back to Durgarshope
• We arrive at the gates at ~9pm, guards are confused. Trix greets us and the guards despair
  • A guard, Charlie, escorts us to Captain Grumble at the garrison
  • Jack walks in, tries to explain to the captain. Essence: “You might want to just… take a look”
  • Captain G examines the gnome and identifies him as Arnie Longfingers, a local explorer. Will let his family know
  • Sends a guard to the temple to fetch someone
• ~15 minutes later the high priestess arrives
  • A female dwarf in heavy armour arrives, a 4-spoked wheel symbol across her chest
  • She recognises the description of the creature as a Gorgon, I tell her the dude was inside its body
  • She inspects the jewellery Jack took without touching it
    • Ring is well made - house of Longfingers - we give it to Captain Grumble to take to his family (I think)
    • Amulet of poison protection (resistance) - but has another enchantment
      • The second consequence is bad - probably turning into a gorgon
      • She buys it off Jack for 500GP, someone hands over a chest of gold
  • She might have some work for Jack - head to temple later if we want
• Captain Grumble tries to give us 100GP until Tetuel reminds him it was 300GP
  • Lana’s carriage has been taken away in the meantime (as it’s her property) - Arnie Longfinger’s body is presumably also taken away
• The bell has rung so it’s party time - we head to the Dancing Queen
  • There’s a long table in the centre, some people in outfits
  • A well-dressed gnomish lady with dark skin, very well dressed, greets us - Tamsin Silverspire
  • We book 5 rooms (2GP each), 5 baths (6sp each)
    • 100SP rooms, 30SP baths -> 130SP -> 13GP
    • Tamsin charges us 23GP for that plus food and some drinks
    • Mordoe says Trix can bunk up with him
  • Ale 2sp, wine 3sp, food 1GP
  • Rooms are nice and clean, burly dwarves haul up a big iron tub in each room
  • 4 of us get hot baths, Regi gets a cold one
    • Essence goes for EXTREMELY hot
  • A small gnomish girl comes up offering soaps and a scrub
    • Mordoe bought a full beard + hair scrub
    • Essence, Tetuel, Jack and Regi paid her for a bit of soap
  • Jack tries to wash their clothes and while they’re wet has to rent a nice green sequined dress
  • Food is ready, table by window reserved
    • “If you’d like to compete I suggest you dress up”
    • Mordoe turns a tablecloth into a toga
    • Tetuel changes into spare clothes
• We head downstairs…

SCHEDULED: <2023-02-02 Thu>

• Starting off in the Dancing Queen, headed down to watch “the competition”
  • Regi washes his clothes, dries them with heat metal, only slightly singes them
  • Mordoe is wearing a tablecloth toga
  • Essence is wearing his normal clothes with an illusionary outfit
  • Tetuel is wearing his spare common clothes
  • Jack is wearing the rented green sequined dress
  • Table reserved by the window, already laid, frothing ale placed for each of us
  • Food is brought out - platters of meat, veg, rice, etc. A bit tapas style
• There’s a sign saying “next dance 10pm” - we start getting an idea what the competition will be
• Jack gets food on their dress, mostly cleans it off
• Tamsin comes round and explains that the competition is a 6-person dance off
  • 1GP to enter, 12GP prize
  • Dance on top of the long, hefty table
  • You win the title of Dancing Queen for the night, which comes with a tiara
• Everyone except Tetuel entered - he watched from the crowd
  • Other two competitors are Tom (a ripped guy) and Rachel (yesterday’s winner in a very fancy dress)
  • First round (knockout)
    • Tom vs Jack - Jack wins with a riverdance and clogging
    • Mordoe vs Regi - Regi does a bit of disco, Mordoe wins with an Irish dance
    • Rachel vs Essence - Essence (“Brian”) snaps his fingers and instantly changes his outfit to a flamenco outfit, beats Rachel
      • She grabs a wine from the shelf while people are distracted
  • Second round (3-way dance off)
    • Jack vs “Brian” vs Mordoe
      • Round 2.1
        • “Brian” offers a hand to Rachel and they don’t do super well
        • Mordoe grabs Trix, it’s like a dad and kid dancing at a wedding
        • Jack does a simple step routine
      • Round 2.2
        • Mordoe goes for the gold cloaked guy from the Moskau music video
        • Essence does some line dancing to Achey Breaky Heart, invites the crowd up
        • Jack does a lindy hop, blows the crowd away
      • Round 2.3
        • Essence does an unimpressive aerobics dance
        • Mordoe does Fortnite default dance - Essence is out
  • Final round - Jack vs Mordoe
    • Mordoe goes a bit Magic Mike with a tablecloth
    • Jack wins the tiara + 12GP
• The night goes on, people dance and drink
• Jack goes straight to bed, the others mostly finish their drinks
• Tetuel heads back to his room to look through the papers he collected in the pirate cave. There are 3 interesting ones
  • Small ledger of stolen items
  • Drawing of a boat, drawing of a lady, “5000” - too drunk to tell who it is at this stage
  • Map - islands in the sea? 2 crosses marking something
• We all wake up a bit groggy - Essence and Regi are both throwing up, hung over
  • When we head down to breakfast Trix loudly harasses the hungover people
• Tetuel asks Trix about Arnie Longfinger
  • He goes to tombs, sells things with religious connotations, gets in trouble with the high priestess
  • Possible he was involved with the Crystal’s Polish
• We leave Essence+Regi behind and go to see Lana
  • Jack goes to the counter and asks to return the cane to Lana - the person says she’s probably asleep
  • She sends someone off to wake + find Lana, who is not pleased at being woken
  • Jack presents Lana with the cane, she thanks them and starts wheeling herself off
  • After being prompted, Lana hands over 120GP - Jack keeps it
• Jack goes to buy some clothes, they throw in a felt hat with a feather
  • Mordoe buys some clothes and a blue neckerchief
• Jack asks Trix for somewhere to buy magical arrows - Elwin’s Sorceror’s Armoury
  • Buys an unknown enchanted arrow to be delivered in 2 days to Dancing Queen
• We head over to Unicorn’s Alchemy to buy healing potions
  • Jack buys 2x regular, 1x greater and gives the regulars to Tetuel
• Back to the Dancing Queen to meet up with Regi and Essence
  • We split up the 300GP from the gorgon bounty
  • The temple in town is to the god of crafting - Gond
• We head up to the temple - it faces towards the ocean
  • Intimidating obsidian structure with huge metal doors which open as we enter
  • The high priestess is at the back, busy priests flitting to and fro
  • The altar at the rear is a giant anvil - there’s a huge statue of Gond with a hammer about to strike it
• Tetuel asks Zhen about the statue in the gorgon cave
  • There’s no major deity who’s a topless antlered man - could be a fae god?
  • This jogs Mordoe’s memory - it’s Cerunnos
    • He was a crossbreed between firbolg and archfae
    • “Master of the Hunt”
    • Known for tricking people
  • The hand pedestal probably held the artefact Jack recovered - so that’ll be where Arnie Longfingers got it from
• We ask about the work Zhen has for us
  • It’s a “delicate matter” - she brings us into a chamber
  • Her (adult) daughter Freya is missing - she’s a clerical explorer who explores new passageways
  • In the mountain there was a fall-in into a chamber - Freya was sent in with a team to explore
    • This was almost two weeks ago, and there’s been no word
    • The floor fell down into a chamber with doors leading off - could be an underground civilisation
  • The council is not allowing anyone else to go down - would rather just sweep it under the rug
  • The entrance is through the main council chamber
  • She’ll pay 900GP - Jack counters with 1000 and she accepts
• We asked Trix about her grandfather and what his invention was
  • Miners go missing - what if we built a mechanical man? What about a mechanical guard?
    • It stopped anyone getting past by bashing everyone into the ground
    • It seems to have been hunting down people in the mine - they sealed it in
  • We decide to head over to talk to him
• It’s a nice part of town, but one building is 10-15 degrees off kilter
  • The dodgy automatic gate closes on us, Trix muscles her way through
  • We see a gnome with grey hair, dungarees and black soot all over his face
  • He can tell Essence has a spell on him using his many flip-down lenses
    • Essence drops his illusion, startling Trix who hits him in the knee with a pipe
  • Introduces himself as Gremble
• Essence asks him about the robot thing
  • “They didn’t follow the instructions”
  • “No one and nothing can stop it”
  • “Remove the power core” - otherwise would last a few dwarven lifetimes - ~1000 years total
    • The power core is in the centre, like its heart
    • Break armour off, remove power core, bring back to him
    • Regi asks about destabilising the power core - maybe if you overload it with enough energy
      • “Can you shoot lightning?”
    • Power core makes a “goong, goong, goong” sound
  • It’s made of lots of different metals, covered in arcane sigils, some glass, etc
    • Protected against Heat Metal by the sigils
  • Could potentially be held down with heavy chains, but not rope
  • About the same height as Mordoe
  • Detects people with thermal vision
• Gremble offers us mining stuff - lanterns, spades, ropes, a canary, pickaxes, gloves, grappling hook
  • We all took a few bits from the growing pile pulled out of a suspicitiously bottomless cupboard
• We asked about any other inventions he’d like tested
  • A staff with extending blades on the ends
    • Needs to be rubbed in a phallic manner to extend/retract the blades?
    • He gives Tetuel this in return for us dealing with the killer robot
      • States that this is now a contract
  • Offers Jack some reading glasses that are enchanted to translate text
    • Essence sees they’re covered in tiny runes, Jack can now read Giant
    • 1 use per day - 1 language for an hour
    • Gremble calls them Reading Glasses, Jack prefers Text Specs
• Gremble says Jack’s axe is “almost sentient”
  • “Do you really hate slavery?” “Then this axe is yours”
  • If wielder perceives slavery, it will take part of the slavers soul when attacked
• Regi pulls out his flute, asks if he’s seen anything like this
  • Definitely enchanted - “do you have the power source for it?”
  • Don’t play it until it’s recharged
• Human skin map - he compares it to his “real map”
  • His map makes much more sense
  • Tetuel can see Druzar on the map!
  • There’s a big city called Bowhold - Essence is from there (although he doesn’t say that)
  • The desert has shrunk a lot since the skin map was made a long time ago
  • While we’re discussing the skin map, Jack buys Gremble’s map for 40GP
    • He then reveals that it’s enchanted so it doesn’t get damaged
• Mordoe mildly pissed him off and we left to avoid further conflict
• Figuring out how to get into the mine
  • Tetuel remembers there was a guarded entrance to the mine as a doorway off the main chamber - just inside the big doors, opposite a prison entrance
  • Trix says bye, we tell her to tell Elaine if we’re not back in a day
  • Jack bribes the guards to let us in
• Inside the mine
  • The mine path winds - arteries going off, lit by lanterns
  • We stop and Essence asks a miner about the closed section
    • 4 lefts, 1 right, 3rd middle, second left
    • The miner starts questioning Essence, watches us
    • We go a different way and wait around the corner. Essence changes his disguise into Ben Stiller
    • The miner comes round the corner, askes Ben Essence where the other guy went
  • Heading towards the closed section, Tetuel leaves chalk marks on the roof at junctions marking where we came from
  • 30 minutes later we come to the closed section with 2 dwarven guards
    • One is huge (human sized)! Think George+Lenny from OMAM
    • We show him Captain Grumble’s paper, the guard knows Freya has gone missing down here
    • Essence persuades them to let us sneak in
  • It’s much narrower + twistier now - Mordoe changes into a little terrier
• We reach the crevice/crevasse where the floor has caved in - it’s dark below
  • There’s an anchor point driven into the rock, but the rope hanging into the hole is severed after a short length
    • Not clear if that’s just from rubbing against the rock or cut on purpose
  • We see mosaic tiles 40ft down
  • Tetuel ties a rope to the anchor and lowers it. Jack climbs down with a lantern, Regi climbs down too
  • Essence gets lowered down, with dog-Mordoe on his shoulders
  • Tetuel jumps down, using Slow Fall to take 0 damage and make a 3 point landing
    • Only Essence notices as dog Mordoe is trying to get the lantern off Jack
• The room is fairly large - ~90x110ft
  • Mosaic floor - just a pattern, no obvious design. Looks really old
  • North - Closed iron portcullis
  • West - Closed stone door
  • East - Closed stone door
  • Dog-Mordoe can smell old blood, dirt, lots of recent creatures moving through here, definitely things living down here
    • Sees boot prints to the west door
    • Changes back to firbolg form and tells us
  • There’s also the remaining rope that had broken in a pile on the floor - Tetuel picks it up to replace his
  • The west door looks crowbarred - marks around it
• To be continued

SCHEDULED: <2023-02-16 Thu>

• Footprints near western door could be humanoid, hard to tell
• Mordoe managed to shift the west door up a bit with a crowbar - it’s about 6in thick stone
• Essence looked through the portcullis to the north
  • Jack looked for a mechanism - it’s jammed and they didn’t manage to free it
• The eastern door has some sort of goo on it - Jack touches it and finds out it’s acid
  • The door swings open. We head in somewhat stealthily and follow the corridor
• There are black diamonds on the floor, slightly raised
  • Jack decides to step on one to test it and gets hit with a magic missile
  • We avoid the rest!
• We hit a stone door shaped like we’re on the inside of a huge face
  • Jack finds it pulls open towards us
• Inside there are 2 creatures, all bones, with horns curling forwards, each carrying a great axe
  • We’re all stacked up in the corridor, trapped, as one charges at Mordoe dealing huge damage! Regi heals him
  • Jack runs into the room to get out of the corridor
  • Essence tries to squeeze past and trips over Regi - both are knocked prone, but Essence misty steps into the room and attacks the skeleton.
  • Tetuel extends the spikes of his staff, readying it
  • Mordoe hits a skeleton with his magical club and finds it does a lot more damage than it should (vulnerable to bludgeoning damage) - Jack knows this already
  • We’re still stacked up in the corridor except for Essence+Jack - skeleton 2 takes Jack down
  • Essence summons a hammer from nowhere
  • Tetuel drops the pointy stick and throws a dagger. Mordoe moves to the back of the queue to give him space and heal
  • Skeleton 2 charges at Essence and knocks him out, ragdolling him out of the way
  • Regi kills the first one with dissonant whispers
  • The second one takes Mordoe down with its axe
  • Tetuel stabilises Essence, Jack stabilises by themself
  • Regi takes skeleton 2 down with dissonant whispers
  • Regi heals Mordoe, Tetuel uses Essence’s potion to heal Essence, Mordoe uses his own potion on Jack
  • Tetuel finds his dagger and pointy stick again, leaves it pointy
  • There’s some writing on the walls in an unknown language
  • After some discussion, Tetuel closes the face door and it locks/latches. We have a short rest.
• There are 2 doors out of this room - a stone one and an iron one
  • Essence pushes the iron door, and the ancient (failed) trap mechanism causes the door to fall open, almost onto him!
  • Mordoe tries to shove the stone door and it budges but doesn’t open
  • All except Mordoe go to explore the corridor through the iron door, see a fallen statue and elven symbols. When we reach a stone door we look for Mordoe and see he’s not following
  • Meanwhile Mordoe turns into a mouse, goes under the stone door and sees it was wedged closed
    • Transforms back and removes the wedge, opening the door
  • On heading back, we all meet up and go through the stone door
• We reach a ~25x35ft room with a mosaic floor, and decide to head around the edges.
  • Regi and Essence bump into each other and step onto the mosaic. It lights up with arcane symbols and Essence, Jack and Mordoe lock into place, paralysed
  • Regi sees that the mosaic is a symbol of paralysation - will last for some time, not known how long. Typically these are used to freeze intruders until someone can go investigate
  • Regi and Tetuel eventually manage to drag Mordoe back out of the room on his face
  • Regi goes back in with a rope tied around his shoulder and Tetuel holding the other end, ties it around Jack and runs back. Tetuel drags Jack back
  • Regi hears approaching shuffling and R+T hide
    • A face appears - person with a short stocky build
    • 4 individuals enter, wearing heavy armour and carrying warpicks
  • All are investigating Essence, who didn’t get evacuated and it appears as if he’s the only intruder
  • Tetuel sneaks up and attacks dude B with the pointy stick, stabbing him through the chest
  • Regi heats dude A’s armour. Dude A smacks his chest and increases in size, as does C
  • Obviously outnumbered, Tetuel tries to back off and apologise in Common, but they don’t seem to respond and continue attacking
  • Dude C carries Essence off through the archway at the far side of the room
  • Regi+Tetuel continue fighting dudes A, B and D. Tetuel kills A, B turns invisible, Tetuel takes down D with a huge punch
  • Mordoe and Jack gradually start to be able to move - Essence is still paralysed offscreen
• Meanwhile, Essence’s offscreen actions
  • Essence starts to recover and collapses. He feels a sack put over his head and he’s thrown hard onto the floor
  • He goes invisible and pulls the sack off his head - the two durgar next to him are arguing but notice he’s gone
  • He summons a pact weapon, a warhammer, and attacks the injured one (which is dude B)
  • When they attack he manages to magically shield and avoid being hit
  • He kills the injured one (dude B) and attacks the enlarged one C, who knocks Essence out
• Back in the mosaic room, Mordoe runs out into the corridor and Regi reaches the door
  • Tetuel helps Jack up and searches one body, finding nothing particularly worthwhile
  • Jack, Regi and Tetuel also head out into the corridor, heading north (same way Mordoe went)

SCHEDULED: <2023-03-07 Tue>

• Where is Essence???
• Mordoe turns into a wolf and tries to sniff out Essence (Nat 20)
  • Finds a door and paws at it
  • Tetuel tried to open the door but someone inside pushed it closed. Pushed against and overpowered them.
  • It’s another durgar, looking beaten up. Behind him is Essence hanging from the ceiling, with one eye hanging out
  • After a scuffle Tetuel kicks the durgar against the opposite wall, killing him
• Tetuel and Mordoe stabilise Essence, push his eye back in carefully and feed him a potion
• Essence hears a voice in the darkness
  • E: “Are you done with me then?” Voice: “No, not at all”
  • V: “Why should I allow you to live?”
  • V: “What is your life worth?”, “What do you have to bargain?”
  • The voice is hard to convince
  • “Do you even know who you’re championing?”
  • “You have friends. What are they worth?”
  • “I would like one friend, in one year’s time” - presumably their soul or something
  • Essence feels a burning on his wrist - the pact being written on his skin
• Essence comes to and SCREAMS
  • Secretly feels his wrist, there is a bump there
• Tetuel closes the door and they barricade it with the durgar’s war pick and Mordoe’s door wedge
  • We take a long rest - Jack takes the first watch and promptly falls asleep
  • Mordoe wakes up 4 hours in, does his watch, then Regi, then Tetuel
  • Thanks to Jack falling asleep our rest ends up being 10h
  • Mordoe checks outside, it’s all clear
• We’re mostly out of water - need to find some
• We go back to the last stone door and try pushing it - lock starts to splinter so Regi picks it instead
  • The room is sloped towards us - down to a spike pit in front of the door. Tetuel jumps over it and looks around
  • It says “They are awake” on the wall in blood in Orcish
    • After saying that to the others Tetuel writes “Could you be more specific?” below it in chalk
  • Everyone goes into the room, now that it doesn’t appear to be trapped. Mordoe wedges the door open
  • There’s a bookshelf at the back
    • Mordoe touches a book and it crumbles, revealing a button
    • Essence presses the button underneath and there’s a ticking sound but nothing appears to happen
    • We investigate the bookshelf for a bit but only succeed in breaking a small chunk off
  • As we give up and leave the room Mordoe pulls the wedge and gets trapped inside. The door slams shut and the bookshelf opens, revealing a secret passage
  • Mordoe closes the bookshelf and we’re able to open the door
• So after some debate we head in through the passageway and follow it
  • It’s clearly a secret passageway - quite narrow and low
  • Tetuel steps on a pressure plate but everyone manages to avoid the zap
  • Everyone else jumps over it
• There’s a door round the corner - we push it open and it opens up to a room with a foul odour of dead, decaying matter
  • Behind us the secret door blends in with the wall
  • There are manacles hanging from the ceiling in the centre of the room and empty sconces on the walls
  • Otherwise appears empty. There are 2 doors - an iron one and a stone one
  • Regi tries to pick the stone door, Essence tries the iron door. Only Regi succeeds
• The corridor is filled with images (paintings?) of torture and someone watching the torture
• We follow the corridor and come to a portcullis
  • Something approaches our lights, and we snuff them out and back off
  • More blue-looking dwarf-like faces approach and then back off after whacking the portcullis
  • We line up and Essence throws a torch through the portcullis
  • 3 durgar approach on the other side and begin hitting the portcullis with their lances
  • Jack shoots two of them, Tetuel throws his dagger but misses
  • These durgar have fiery red veins popping out on their forehead
  • Regi sees that they’re wearing heavy armour and heats it
  • Durgar hit the portcullis again, attempting to break through, and one creates a huge jet of fire from his mouth
    • It blazes down the corridor, burning 3 of the party
    • Mordoe casts frostbite on him to try to cool him down a little
  • Tetuel and Essence jump through the new hole melted in the portcullis and get a few hits on the durgar
  • Regi kills the last durgar with vicious mockery
• There’s an iron chest in the back of the room
  • Mordoe sees that it’s enchanted and taps it. A burst of emerald energy washes over him
  • Mordoe sees 4 more enemies appear (where we were)
  • He calls out for the party but when we respond he only hears aggressive durgar noises
  • He casts thunderclap and makes a huge noise. Sees the walls are on fire and the durgar are coming towards him
  • Essence casts hold person but it fails. Tetuel grabs Mordoe and the magic starts to wear off.
  • Mordoe doesn’t remember anything that happened between touching the chest and being grabbed by Tetuel
  • The chest enchantment is now gone so Essence picks the lock
  • Various treasure inside
    • 2500CP, 800SP, 40GP
    • Silver mirror (worth 25GP) - Essence took
    • Stone dice (worth 25GP) - Mordoe took
    • Painted glass figurine (worth 25GP) of a goddess of strength - Tetuel took
    • Magic leather belt - we carefully put into Mordoe’s pack
    • Pewter censer (worth 25GP) of the same goddess of strength - filigreed - Tetuel took
• Mordoe looks through the portcullis on the other side of the room and sees a corridor. Can’t lift it though so we go to the other doors in the room
  • Mordoe breaks the east door open, Essence opens the north door and we go through that
  • In the corridor there’s a chandelier on the roof but there doesn’t seem to be anything else interesting about it
• We come to a room where we can hear a crackling fire - put out our torches and stealth
• To be continued

Map for this session

SCHEDULED: <2023-03-13 Mon>

• There’s firelight in the room ahead
  • We can hear 2 voices - Mordoe realises they’re speaking Giant, complaining about their food being skin and bones
  • Mordoe heads in to try talking to them
  • The speakers are 2 ogres ~10ft tall, standing by a fire in the back corner
  • “Excuse me kind sirs, but do you know the way out of here”
    • One begins “We got pulled through by this creat-” before the other slaps him to shut him up. “Don’t talk to food”
    • They’re considering eating him, he tries to persuade them not to
    • It doesn’t work - “Don’t be stupid, don’t listen to food”
  • Ogre A grabs Mordoe - “Come ’ere, food!”
    • Tetuel immediately throws a dagger and hits the ogre
    • Mordoe: “Food’s got friends, big boy” - casts thunder wave, breaks grapple
  • The ogres seem happy that more food has come
  • Ogre B hits Tetuel, almost takes him down immediately
  • Ogre A swings its chain at Essence, Regi and Jack, knocks Essence prone
  • Jack drops their bow, draws their hatchet and whacks A
  • Tetuel hits B, preventing it reacting, and runs away. Mordoe heals him.
  • Essence draws his blade and kills A, Mordoe and Tetuel take down B
• We inspect the room
  • There are no obvious signs of water, remains of their victims or any firewood
  • It looks like they dismantled the room’s furniture to burn it
  • Jack and Tetuel put the spit across the doorway so it might alert us to intruders - Jack lifting it effortlessly, Tetuel struggling
  • Tetuel grabs his dagger back from the ogre
  • Mordoe cooks a chunk of giant mushroom on the fire
  • There’s a grate in the ceiling that the smoke is leaving through
  • We decide to take a long rest
    • Mordoe takes first watch, gives Jack a second chance on watch, then Regi. All uneventful
  • Tetuel wakes up dehydrated - one point of exhaustion
• We head off down the corridor and come to an unlocked door. Mordoe impatiently kicks it open
  • Behind the door are 3 more blue dwarves staring at us, mouths gaping. They’re not moving at all
  • Mordoe detects no magic
  • Tetuel pokes one and he topples over - Mordoe checks whether he’s breathing - no.
  • Jack notices each has a dagger through their heart and it looks like they did that themselves
  • Mordoe checks the daggers aren’t magical and Tetuel takes them
  • Jack sees a symbol on the durgars’ tabbards that we all recognise - a 4 spoked wheel, symbol of Gond
    • Are these the dwarves who got sent down with Freya? But they look like the weird blue dwarves that have been attacking us all this time
    • Maybe they captured Freya’s party and took their armour?
  • Tetuel cuts a sample of one dude’s tabbard to show the insignia in case we need evidence
  • Mordoe and Jack prop up the portcullis on the other side of the room, Essence goes through and pulls the lever to open the portcullis
• On the other side is another room with a chest in it - Mordoe detects necromantic magic - we almost decide to leave it
  • We can’t open the doors of the room - maybe the portcullis needs to be closed for the doors to open?
    • We leave the room with the portcullis closing behind us - Jack shoots the lock of the chest and it flops open
    • Mordoe can now detect 2 magics - a new enchantment magic inside the chest
  • We try to open the portcullis by lifting it, fail, try to throw a rope around the lever, fail and then try lifting again, just barely succeed. Regi crawls through and lets us in again
  • Jack goes over to look and sees a cylinder with markings - can’t read them without getting closer
  • Tries to grab the cylinder without touching the chest, doesn’t manage it, gets enveloped in dark crackling energy
    • Jack’s now cursed! Disadvantage on wisdom checks, and surrounded by a black aura (might have just been in Mordoe’s Detect Magic vision)
    • Jack reads the cylinder using their text specs - the arcane runes talk about cats and dexterity
  • Looks like the doors are just plain stuck - the frames and walls have shifted enough that they can’t be opened
• We head all the way back to the room with the iron chest and go look at the portcullis
  • There’s a sconce on either side. Regi turns the left one, almost gets stabbed by a spear, turns the other and the portcullis opens
  • In the corner of the corridor, Tetuel steps on a pressure plate and a flail swings at him. Tetuel ducks and it hits Mordoe instead
  • Ahead there’s an inset carving in an outline of a doorway. Jack can see there’s a room through some holes in the carving. Further down the corridor it just looks like a dead end although we can’t see any traps
• Jack reaches into a handle-looking part of the carving and pushes the door open
  • Two ogres turn to look at the door and one booms “FOOOD!” Roll initiative.
  • Tetuel pushes one into the other, before Jack shoots both within a fraction of a second - “FOOD HURT”
  • Regi steps on the same pressure plate as earlier while rushing into the room, triggering the trap again. Heals himself and hopes nobody noticed
  • Tetuel whacks ogre B for 36 damage in one turn, knocks him prone (we’ve all queued up in a line for flanking)
  • Ogre A spins around with his chain, hitting Mordoe, Regi, Jack and his friend, taking his friend’s head off
  • Mordoe bonks A on the head, killing him
  • Jack searches the bodies and finds a bag with 130GP, not much else
• We look at the stone bookcase in the corner of the room
  • The books fall apart - it looks like they’re water damaged from behind
  • Regi and Mordoe start shifting the bookcase to the side - it falls on them revealing that it was actually hinged
  • Behind it is a small alcove, containing a plinth with nothing on it
  • It looks like water has poured down from the ceiling - some sort of fountain?
  • Putting a weight (the ogre’s chain) on the plinth doesn’t seem to do anything, so Tetuel tries the pewter censer from the iron chest
  • Water pours down from the ceiling onto/into the censer - we refill our waterskins and have a good drink. Essence fills his wine bottle too
• Quitting while we’re ahead…

Map for this session

SCHEDULED: <2023-04-05 Wed>

• Tetuel looks through the south archway - there’s another room with some writing scratched on the wall
  • Mordoe reads it - it says “Ten, One” in Giant
• We find a dead end, then link up with the corridor from session 16 with elven symbols
  • Try the stone door that we couldn’t open before without Mordoe, it eventually gives
• Inside is a room with a floor made of an iron grate, with a spike pit below
  • Mordoe spider climbs to look through the archway on the other side of the room but it’s too dark
  • There’s a painting on the wall of the grate room of clouds and a person
  • Mordoe grabs Jack’s torch to get a better look and hears ticking insect noises behind him. Turns around and sees hundreds of tiny eyes
  • There’s a giant spider (A) on the ceiling, roll initiative
  • Regi steps onto the grate - it’s difficult terrain
    • Casts a minor illusion of a pulsing light to try to draw the spider away from Mordoe. It does start looking toward it
  • Tetuel comes in but can’t reach the spider, Essence enters too and trips on the grate
  • Another spider (B) comes in through the archway, teleports and bites Tetuel
  • Mordoe casts Ice Knife on one spider and it gets hit hard. Regi viciously mocks one spider and heals Mordoe
  • Tetuel knocks B off the ceiling with a punch and stomps it into the grate, dead
  • Essence eldritch blasts A, Jack shoots it, Mordoe smacks it like a pinata with his club, killing it and spraying Tetuel with black ichor
• The room through the archway is full of webs - Jack burns it down
  • Essence finds some half plate armour and gives it to Mordoe to carry
• We head back to the room with the paralysing mosaic and try out the stone door we didn’t get to before
  • Mordoe is still able to spider climb and carries Jack over there, kicking the door open
  • Jack checks the corridor for traps
  • Mordoe throws a sling onto the mosaic floor, nothing obvious happens
• Down the corridor is an iron door - Regi can hear something behind
  • Somebody whimpering, a lashing sound, crackling energy
  • The door isn’t locked - Essence looks through the keyhole and can see some figures casting energy at something
  • We stealth, Mordoe turns into a black bear (Beardoe) at the back of the group (round a corner)
    • Tetuel drops his staff against the iron door and it clangs, the door slowly opens
• In the room there are 2 figures ahead
  • A - lithe looking woman in a purple dress, energy crackling round hand, shortbow over her shoulder, scimitar at her side
  • B - Man covered in arcane tattoos, pulsing with energy, hair pulled back into a ponytail, one rib exposed
  • On the floor is someone short in silver armour, chained down spreadeagled, covered in blood and gore
  • Jack immediately shoots A, casts hunters mark
  • A attacks Tetuel at the front of the group with her scimitar
  • Regi uses Minor Illusion to make a loud lion’s roar behind the figure on the floor. A looks in surprise at the noise
  • B flicks out a forked tongue and looks at us down the corridor. “Let’s see if they can join us”
    • Tetuel and Essence both collapse to the floor, asleep
  • Beardoe scrabbles round the corner from the rear of the queue and launches himself at the woman, pinning her down (grappled)
    • She tries to cast Animal Friendship thinking Mordoe is an actual bear. Beardoe thinks “wtf” and growls in her face
  • Regi viciously mocks A - “Hey Goldilocks!”. She’s a brunette.
  • B eldritch blasts Beardoe and turns his own hands into snakes
  • Tetuel and Essence are still asleep
  • Beardoe claws at A and bites her throat
  • Jack shoots, then nudges Essence, waking him up
  • A spits something at Mordoe but it doesn’t have any effect
  • Regi casts Heat Metal on A’s scimitar, she throws it away
  • Essence kicks Tetuel awake, then Eldritch Blasts B
  • Jack shoots B but he casts Hellish Rebuke. She then shoots A on the floor, killing her
  • B’s eyes turn red in anger and he attacks Beardoe again, taking down both the bear form and Mordoe himself
  • Tetuel hits B, knocking him into the room, and follows him in
  • Essence casts Hold Person but it fails - apparently he’s not humanoid. Jack shoots B again
  • B’s snake hands take Tetuel down
  • We notice the person being tortured IS a dwarf and is still in pain
  • More hits+shots. Essence stabilises Tetuel
  • Jack shoots and kills B, pinning his snake hand to his face, and the hand turns back to a normal hand
• We’re now out of initiative and have a look around
  • Jack finds their arrows, Regi heals Tetuel and Mordoe
  • We look at the dwarf - she’s panting, not really with it. There’s a four-spoked wheel on her cheset
  • She’s chained to big iron floor hoops by her arms, and her legs are tied together with rope
  • Essence recognises a ritual circle - conjuration? transformation?
  • The metal of the manacles has been welded closed around her wrists
  • Jack looks around - there are 2 stone doors and a painting of a humanoid on a throne of snakes
    • Finds a shortbow on the lady and a quiver of arrows
  • Mordoe casts Heat Metal on one loop - it softens and opens up. One chain is free from the floor. Does the same for the other
  • The dwarf wipes her face, says “thanks” and passes out
  • We can see where she’s been tortured, healed and then tortured again
  • We’re assuming this is Freya - she does look like Zhen
  • Mordoe checks his canary - it’s dead, crushed when he fell down
• We decide to take a short rest
• Freya’s still unconscious so we decide to get her out of the dungeon ASAP. Ideally we’ll avoid going through the paralysing room again
• Regi picks one door, Jack explores down that way and finds a dead end with a backpack and another with a fresh-ish humanoid skeleton
  • With the backpack was a shield with a 4-spoked wheel on it - probably belongs to Freya
• The other door also opens and meets up with the corridor on the other side of the mosaic room
• We have to go through the mosaic room to get back to the exit
  • Tetuel steps onto the mosaic to activate it and freezes
  • Essence+Regi pick him up, drag him along back to the stone face door
  • Mordoe tries to persuade the door to open but it doesn’t work
  • The door doesn’t appear to open from this side but there are 2 pin holes - was a spy door
  • Essence peers through the pin holes and misty steps through it, opens it
    • This is the first time Jack’s seen Essence teleport
  • Tetuel’s now coming to
• We avoid the magic missile traps in the corridor and make it back to the first room we came to. Our rope is still there, dangling from the ceiling
  • Mordoe spider climbs up carrying Freya, the rest of us follow up the rope
• We hear steps coming towards us - it’s the 2 guards from before
  • On hearing that we rescued Freya, one goes to get a hand cart, carefully puts her in and covers her up
  • Hands Jack a note, saying “If anyone asks, show them this. Take her to the temple, help her”
• We encounter a few people on the way out but make it out the mines at about dawn
  • Trix is still there, surprised we’re still alive
  • Mordoe pays her to head to the temple ahead of us to warn them, we get there after about an hour
• The High Priestess is there, Mordoe unveils Freya. Zhen says “Stay here. This may take some time.”
  • An acolyte takes us to a big open bathhouse and gets us some robes
  • Essence gets into the bath, drops invisibility and then removes his clothes while still disguised as clothed Brian - it looks very odd
  • Trix asks us if we want some cheese and returns with a stolen platter of cheese, an old man following her complaining
  • We all start bathing, at some point spare clothes get brought in, a couple of hours go by
• The High Priestess comes back in, gives us a chest with 1000GP in it
  • “She’s stable. She’s talking again”
  • Jack: “I may have gotten cursed”
    • Zhen (slightly astounded): “You are, what did you do?!”
    • She gets the old man Harold (who Trix stole the cheese from) to clear Jack’s curse. He drains the curse from their body, releasing it with a small cut, then uses the cheese to heal the cut.
      • Says something like “Cheese is wonderful”
  • Mordoe dumps out his burlap sack of cursed things
    • Zhen suggests we find a wizard to identify things - directs us to the Arconsphere academy near Crestfall
    • The human skin map is “crude, to say the least” - probably a few hundred years old
• We ask to talk to Freya, get led back through the temple to a small side room
  • Freya has a cup of “tea” in her hand
  • Her shield and hammer glow blue and she glares at “Brian”
    • “RELEASE THIS MORTAL, DEMON”
    • Essence drops the Brian illusion, tries to persuade Freya that’s just how he looks
    • Freya: “This one has a pact with the dark”
  • Mordoe convinces her not to attack with “He killed the one who was torturing you”
  • Freya puts her hammer down but keeps the shield up and beckons Essence closer
    • Freya: “Did you steal them? The eyes. Your. Eyes.”
    • Essence: “Can we talk?”
    • Freya: “If you can answer me one question. Who’s your mother?”
    • Essence: “I wish I knew”
    • Freya: “How old are you?”
    • Essence: “I wish I knew”
      • He grew up in rough places with people calling him Essence
    • Freya: “Could you be…” - puts shield down
  • Freya tells us a tale (I missed some bits while taking the notes)
    • Some years ago she was exploring an ancient burial ground built by the Drow. She’s curious about the Drow - that’s why she was where we found her
    • She came across strange Orcish descriptions
      • Drow had captured an Orcish shaman
      • Orcs revered the day of the crimson dawn
    • Orcs appeared and drove Freya’s party off. They headed down into the tunnels - that was their mistake. Something dwells down there
    • Their own shadows started attacking them - Freya’s friend Belle(?) got driven off a ledge
    • Freya came to, tied up
    • A woman came in clutching a strange purple orb, followed by shadow demons
    • Another person appeared, made of both light and shadow, and attacked the demons chasing the woman
      • They had the same eyes as Essence, told Freya to run for her life
    • Freya asks Essence “Can you do that?”
      • “I have picked up skills in that area, yes”
    • Several more humanoids came out of the same alcove, attacking the shadow demons, but there were more and more of the shadows
    • One man ran towards Freya clutching a bundle to his chest and cut her free
    • The man with the bundle told another “We need an exit now, Mr Wizard”. The wizard began casting a circle
    • A portal opened, Freya grabbed the lady with the orb, the guy with the bundle came through too
    • Then the wizard fell and the portal closed before anyone else got out
    • The bundle guy told Freya never to come here again, and left
    • The robed lady was Madame Ysir!
    • They rested and healed up, waited in case anyone else got out, days went by, but eventually they headed back towards civilisation. It took weeks.
    • This was a couple of decades ago
    • Essence asked which mountain the temple was near - (Al will let us know later)
    • The crest on the saviours’ armour was that of the Greycoats (she didn’t specify who was associated with them). The wizard appeared to be from the Arconsphere
  • Tetuel mentioned we’ve met Madame Ysir. Freya didn’t know a lot about centaurs
  • Freya asked if we found her party. We let her know we did and none of them made it out
    • They were expecting an empty tomb but got ambushed by the serpent people
  • She thanked us and we left
• Calling it there - we’re now level 5!

Map for this session

SCHEDULED: <2023-04-17 Mon>

• Tetuel is still carrying the reward chest from Zhen - we haven’t actually looked in it yet!
• Cyra asks a nearby templegoer (attendant/priest?) if we can use some beds
  • He’s a tall elven gentleman who looks old even for an elf (also has a weird “yeeees?” voice)
  • The temple attendant asks for a donation to the temple in return and Cyra hands over 2GP
• He takes us to a room which is a bit dusty with bunk beds in it
  • Tetuel jumps straight into the nearest bed with his pack still on (exhausted), Jack also heads to bed
• The others decide to go “for a jaunt”, as Essence put it
  • They disguise Regi as a pirate with the help of Mordoe’s pirate hat - Captain Zack Sparrow
  • Trix messes her hair up - “They call me… Stix”
• REM (Regi, Essence and Mordoe) head down to the docks - takes a couple of hours to walk down the path
  • Elaine is still there - she’ll be heading out in a couple of hours (~midday) back to Lark’s Cutting
  • REM decide to stay behind to do some more around Durgarshope, especially as they’ll struggle to get Jack and Tetuel back in time
  • Mordoe asks Elaine to tell Father Huel that we’ll be back down “soonish” - and to tell Jack’s parents that Jack’s doing good
  • They say bye to Elaine and head off to go shopping
• Trix tries to get Mordoe to pay her more money
  • Essence: “What do you even do with money?”
  • Trix: “What don’t I do with money?… spend it”
  • Essence asks Trix about Crystal’s Polish - it’s a pretty dodgy bar, even worse than the Copper Sigot
  • The Copper Sigot used to be the Copper Spigot, but someone stole the P
• Guard at the gate tells them there’s a message - Captain Grumble wants an update
  • Essence: “How angry was he?”
  • Guard: “He says something abous spears up assholes”
  • REM assume it’s about the two(?) bounties we abandoned
• REM get to the Copper Sigot - now about 4.5 hours since leaving the temple
  • Everything inside is made of iron - really sturdy. There’s a long bar across the back
  • There’s a pretty strong smell of stale ale, smoke and BO
  • There are massive barrels of beer at the back - each has a copper spigot
  • The bartender is a stocky dwarf
  • They order 3.5 ales for 4 silver - the mugs are ceramic. Mordoe takes the half (instead of Trix)
  • Essence mentions the missing P on the sign within earshot of the bartender and he gets very suspicious
  • They grab a table - the table and chairs are bolted to the floor
  • Trix: “There’s a game at night! This place is known for boat racing!”
    • Essence: “On what body of water?”
    • Trix: “Err… beer”
    • You drink in a team sitting behind each other, downing beers one at a time
  • Some street urchins stick their heads in, bartender tells them to get out
• As they leave the bartender surreptitiously puts a piece of paper back in his pocket
  • This raises REM’s suspicions - they think he’s going to call the guards on them
  • Mordoe “decides they should head back for another drink” and goes back in with Trix
  • Essence heads outside and disguises himself as a hooded beggar with scarred hands - announces to nobody in particular “My name’s Cassandra now!”
  • Regi walks out and hides, staying within earshot
  • Mordoe chats to Trix - she grew up with Gremble and learned a lot of tricks off him
    • Trix: “I really wanna free my parents, they’re kind of imprisoned”
      • Made a few promises to the wrong people
    • The robot was supposed to be a prison warden
    • Money from the robot would have been enough to pay off Trix’s parents debt - 10k GP each
  • Trix gets another round for her and Mordoe. These pints are thick and tarry at the bottom. Trix starts to keel over and Mordoe picks her up
  • As Mordoe leaves the barkeeper tucks something in his pocket again - Mordoe asks what it is
    • It’s a piece of paper that says “Patronage. Say this when people leave.” - just a reminder of his word of the day!
  • Trix is falling asleep under Mordoe’s arm - Mordoe looks for Regi and Essence but can’t see them so heads back to the temple
    • Essence has been begging quite successfully, Mordoe hands some cash to the beggars
    • Essence and Regi follow Mordoe to the temple at a distance, watching for guards. Trix gives drunken directions from under Mordoe’s arm
• They reach the temple - Jack and Tetuel wake up
  • Tetuel distributes the money from our last adventure - 700GP, 160SP, 8CP each
  • Mordoe leaves Trix in one of the beds?
• We all head out shopping
  • Unicorn’s Alchemy first - shopkeeper asks if we found a unicorn hair yet
    • We ask to buy all her potions of healing - 1000GP for 7 basic, 3 greater
    • She also has climbing, swimming, eyesight and stealth potions
  • Elwin’s Sorceror’s Armoury next
    • Jack gets their fire arrows - pays remaining 150GP
    • Essence sells the half plate
    • Jack asks about light armour - Elwin suggests to try in Lark’s Cutting as leather isn’t common here
    • We ask about weapon shops - suggests Eris Dunthane(?)’s shop in the Temple Ward district
      • The Exalted Grindstone
      • Has large windows with weapons on display
• We head in the rough direction of the Temple Ward district
  • Jack asks someone and he puts his hand out for a bribe - Regi puts his own hand in it instead, intimidates him into taking us there
  • Outside on the floor is a guy with a bald head, tattoos and gems all over his face
    • “Ah, hello” - with eyes closed. “Welcome to Mystic Mike’s Magical Maelstrom of the… muture”
    • Jack immediately just puts their family axe in Mike’s hands - “Oh, this is a family weapon”
      • Mordoe pulls out his Burlap Sack of Cursed Things
    • The gnome holding Regi’s hand makes his excuses and leaves, asks Regi to let go
    • Mike offers to read palms
      • Mordoe’s: “Trees are in your past and future”
      • Regi’s: “A chased man. Somebody wants you”. “All kinds of paths”. “I suggest you avoid a certain part of the city”
    • Regi complains that it wasn’t very specific or detailed and Mike says he should have paid more
  • We head into the shop
    • Inside is a dwarf - if my notes are right this would be Eris Dunthane?
    • Tetuel buys a set of tinker’s tools - 60GP
      • Gets the impression that the dude is selling his own tools and this is just the replacement cost
    • Quotes 40GP to fix Gremble’s staff, Tetuel declines
• Next, the general store- The Wheelwright - in the adventurer’s district
  • We get there as it closes unfortunately - the horn has sounded so “it’s party time” as Trix would have put it
• We head to the garrison to see Captain Grumble
  • 1 day remaining on Whack a Wolf, 2 days for Cull the Crocs
  • Grumble asks how we did on Whack a Wolf - due tomorrow morning - 25GP per pelt
• We decide to head out to whack some wolves
  • Currently not quite dark yet - the guards are just closing the gate as we get there, but let us out
  • 4 hours in (with Jack guiding) we see a sign for a village - Ploughcroft
  • Regi sees a hooded figure sitting on a well, who lowers her bow as we approach - “You’d better come to the farm”
  • Meanwhile Jack looks for tracks - sees spots of blood leading to the east and gets the lay of the land
    • There’s an old sheep pen with none left any more
  • The farmer introduces herself as Yvonne Pitcher
    • The wolves have come for about 2 weeks - most nights, from the east
    • They eat her sheep - there’s only Albert and Victoria left. She’s put them in the back room of her house
  • Jack comes back after about 20 minutes and tells us there are 5 large wolves and one REALLY big wolf
• We prepare for the wolves to arrive
  • Tetuel tries to fix his staff and makes it worse - the other end pings off too
  • Jack makes a fire in the middle of the field and tells us not to attack the wolves until Jack does
  • Mordoe and Regi get on top of the small shed
  • Essence and Tetuel get on the roof of Yvonne’s house and hide
• We hear howling after about an hour - 3 wolves come along the low cliffs to the south and jump down. Roll initiative
  • Mordoe casts Call Lightning and prepares a thundercloud above us
  • Wolf C immediately notices Mordoe and Regi and begins harrassing them from the ground
  • Jack casts Speak with Animals, says hi and tries to convince the wolves that they ate all the sheep - it doesn’t work
  • 2 more wolves sneak up to the door of Yvonne’s house - only Regi notices
  • Regi casts Hypnotic Pattern - the nearby wolves are all incapacitated and charmed. He tells us not to hit them
  • The Big Bad Wolf jumps up onto the roof and prowls towards Essence
    • It’s 10ft long, massively muscly and has blue-white fur
    • It bites Essence and throws him off the roof
  • Mordoe lightnings the Big Bad Wolf and jumps off the roof of the shed towards Essence
    • The roof of Yvonne’s cottage catches fire
  • Wolf B jumps up next to Regi and bites him - hypnotic pattern taken down
  • Jack tries to get the big wolf’s attention and persuade it that Jack will bring meat - it’s not convinced so Jack shoots it instead
  • Essence casts Fly, grows spectral purple wings and gets away
  • Tetuel puts out one bit of fire on the roof and calls out to warn Yvonne. Punches the big wolf in the face
  • Regi makes another hypnotic pattern around himself and closes his eyes to avoid seeing it
    • Inspires Mordoe, now 1D8
  • The big wolf jumps off hte roof towards Mordoe, bites him. Mordoe casts Thunder Wave at lvl3, pushes 2 wolves away
  • Jack tries to reason with wolf E as it snarls in their face
  • Essence rains eldritch blasts from above onto the big bad wolf
  • Tetuel jumps off the burning roof, drops his dagger and only manages to get one hit on the big wolf
  • Regi makes the big wolf run away with Dissonant Whispers and inspires Jack. Tetuel gets a hit in as the wolf runs
  • The wolf runs back and blasts Tetuel and Mordoe with a freezing wind, downing Mordoe and wolf D
  • The roof fire spreads and we stop hearing sounds inside the building
  • Jack shoots Wolf E and Regi kills it with Dissonant Whispers
  • Tetuel barges Yvonne’s door open and sees Yvonne unconscious on the floor
  • The big wolf runs up to Jack and blasts them wiht an icy wind, wolf D bites Jack and knocks them prone
  • Jack gets up and shoots the Big Bad Wolf, sending a fire arrow through its eyeball and exploding its head, shoots D too
  • Essence flies down and pours a healing potion down Mordoe’s throat
  • Tetuel drags Yvonne out the door, the roof is basically gone now
  • For the sake of brevity, we kill the remaining wolves

SCHEDULED: <2023-05-11 Thu>

• We’ve just defeated the wolves and pulled Yvonne out of her house
• Regi checks if Yvonne is dead - not quite, so he heals her up with a Healing Word
  • She coughs and asked what happened - “There was… a storm?”
  • Mordoe apologises and offers Yvonne money
    • We estimate ~100GP to replace a roof and 2GP to buy a sheep, so Mordoe gives her 120 to assuage his guilt a little
  • We make a human chain to put out the rest of the fire with water from the well
  • Yvonne says she knows some nearby farmers she can buy sheep from. Starts sifting through the ashes and tells us to leave her alone
• Jack and Mordoe skin the 6 wolves - get 5 big wolf pelts and one larger one
• We get back to Durgarshope in record time as the sun comes up and head straight to Captain Grumble
  • We plonk down the pelts
  • “This is a winter wolf” - that’s probably why the normal wolves were following it
  • The winter wolf pelt is worth more than he can give us - suggests we take it to Elwin’s Sorcerors’ Armoury
• We head to Elwin’s and arrive just as he’s opening up
  • Says he can turn the pelt into frost protection boots, will take about 2 weeks + 500GP
  • We go for it - if we haven’t collected it in 3 weeks time he’ll send it to Jack’s Rest in Lark’s Cutting, which will take about 2 weeks
  • Mordoe asks if he could make a wolf hood too - no effects but only a couple of gold
  • Suggests we have a bath if we’re wandering around town
• The general store won’t let us in unless we’re cleaned up, so Regi takes us round the corner and uses Prestidigitation to remove the dirt and make us smell nice
  • Tetuel buys a sling, sling bullets, rations (wombat, lamb and cow jerkies) and a dark blue cloak
    • The shopkeeper offers 10GP for the figure of the goddess of strength - seems a bit low so declines
  • Mordoe looks for a shield
  • Jack buys a dappled forest green cloak
  • The others buy some rations
• Next back to the temple - morning prayer is in progress
  • Trix is still there - “I. feel. like. death.” - very hung over
  • We head to bed - long rest
  • Tetuel manages to repair Gremble’s stick
• Trix takes us to the market for lunch
  • Fruit guy - juggles and makes jokes about his plums
  • Barb sells pulses and rice
  • We buy ploughman’s lunches and sandwiches
  • Mordoe buys a wheel of cheese and Cobblestone cider - from near where he’s from!
  • Jack buys supplies for sandwiches
• Regi asks Trix if there’s anything else interesting in town - she suggests a pet shop called Joe’s Exotics
  • Joe has purple slicked back hair and cowboy boots
  • Jack asks if Joe has any tigers
    • He has a tiger cub
    • Goes “who who who what are you doing?” and pulls out a knife when Jack starts casting Speak With Animals, but lets them do it
    • Jack negotiates Joe down from 50GP to 38GP for the cub, Joe hands it over in a cage
    • If anyone asks where we got it, it definitely wasn’t from here
  • Regi asks if Joe has any centaur parts
    • Could track one down maybe, but not really his kinda thing
    • Talk to his cousin Marlene Exotic, who lives out in the wild
    • We can find Marlene on the outskirts of the Bloodoath Forest
    • Tetuel gets Jack’s map so Joe can show us better
      • Somewhere near where the desert meets the mountains on the southwest side
      • There’s a large Y-shaped tree at a crossroads. Stab a dagger into the tree, throw some blood over it
      • Marlene will presumably use the scent of the blood to track us down, so it has to be blood of something that’s with us (or our own)
      • Joe points at the second T-junction away from Nuzan (not the one towards Druzar)
  • Joe offers to show Regi “a very special puppy dog”
    • It has colour changing eyes, is a “little bit of a handful”, and is in an enchanted cage
    • Jack greets it (Speak With Animals still active) and he introduces himself as Archibald, a puppy fae
    • Archibald was tricked into the cage and wants us to let him out - he can sort the rest
      • Jack: “Do you have any ideas for what might distract him?” Archibald: “Decapitation.”
    • Regi casts Suggestion on Joe - “You let the dog out, you, you, you you you.” Joe isn’t convinced - “Nice tune, buddy”
    • Jack: “I’m not paying that much for a FAE!”
    • Joe puts his hand on the cage and vanishes, the door at the back of the room closes and the room starts filling with smoke
• Outside, Mordoe takes the tiger out of the cage and plays a little game of pounce - it’s about the size of a cat
• We get out, Essence grabbing 2 birds on the way to save them from the smoke. It doesn’t smell but it’s bluish green
  • Regi makes a scream illusion in the street and walks the other way. Trix leads us away as guards and passers by go to investigate the scream
  • Jack checks the tiger - it’s a girl, calls her Janet
  • Mordoe frees the birds
• We kinda need a lead - Essence goes back as Cassandra, the old crone
  • Looks around the back - there’s a small wall ~8ft tall with spikes on top and a gate
  • Stealthily casts Fly and hovers up. Inside there’s a card with a tarp over the top and a horse. There’s a door into the back of the shop
  • Cassandra hovers over the wall, making a guard wonder wtf they just saw and whether they’re seeing things
  • Checks under the tarp and crowbars open a box but it’s just pet food
  • Can hear Joe inside talking to the guards and saying he was assaulted
  • Floats back over the wall and surprises a kid, who runs off
  • Heads back to the rest of the group and tells Mordoe to hide the bird cages he was still carrying, so he hides them under rubbish in an alleyway
• People are pointing at the tiger - Jack hides Janet under their cloak
• What now? Deal with the murderbot in the mines? Mordoe can make lightning now, which might be what we need
• Berteph’s Wands - maybe a wand of lightning as a backup?
  • It’s a 2-story tower of polished marble. Prismatic light glances off the walls as Regi heads in. The inside of the tower has more sides than the outside
  • Berteph greets us - “Hello Reginald. Mordoe. ” etc
  • “Murderbot? Oh no… come out Trix”
    • It was supposed to be a guardian - maybe wasn’t quite finished when Gremble’s attention waned and the buyers wanted it quickly so he rushed it
    • Berteph could sell us some items to give us an advantage
    • Don’t use fire - it will use that to heal itself - but you could maybe overload its healing capacity - that’s probably how the lightning Gremble suggested would work
    • Freezing the robot might slow it down a bit
  • Jack asks about electric arrows - about 12 hours for 3 arrows, 50GP each. Orders them
  • Berteph has wands to sell, duh
    • Magic missile - slightly depleted - up to 3rd level with 4 charges - 180GP. Regi buys it
    • Wand of Mirror Image - creates replicas of yourself that might make enemy attacks miss - 7 charges left
  • Mordoe brings out his Burlap Sack of Cursèd Items and asks Berteph to identify some
    • The belt is Simon the Serpent Belt - Berteph throws it and it turns into a snake!
    • The cylinder with dexterity-related writing on it is actually a Wand of Cat’s Grace!
• We’re calling it there

SCHEDULED: <2023-05-24 Wed>

• Pre-session to keep things brief:
  • Mordoe finds a shield to buy - a carpenter was making a small round table for gnomes. Mordoe gets him to agree to add some straps and sell it for 20 gold. The carpenter even throws in the table legs to make it into a 3ft high table capable of taking even Mordoe’s weight
  • Carpenter was Ronald Ducksfellow
  • Anything else we want to do? Roughly 2pm
  • Tetuel - takes a short rest and focuses his ki on the sling, spends some time practicing with it - it becomes his Dedicated Weapon and now counts as a monk weapon
  • Mordoe - attunes to the snake belt
• At the temple we talk to Trix
  • She hasn’t been in the prison, but it’s through the halls of justice - they sentence you and send you in
  • The door is sealed since the guardian went rogue
  • We asked about explosives - they’re a controlled substance
• We go to talk to Gremble
  • He finds the plans for the robot - it’s technical gnomish writing so Tetuel can read it but not make out much
  • There’s a power core in the middle surrounded by armour - hard to get to as it’s completely built around the core
  • It does see from the head area
  • Doesn’t recommend mixing lightning with the power core - he has no idea what would happen
  • You can probably overload the power core
  • The guardian has stubby legs
  • It’s quite smart - a heat source other than us might trick it, or it might see through the ruse
• We head to bed at the temple - Trix offers to look after Janet
• Up to the council chamber, Hall of Justice is up the top, jail is through the back of it
  • We head in - 6 doors leading off the council chamber, one of which is the Hall of Justice
  • 2 goliaths in full plate armour at each door, gnome at the desk outside the HoJ
• Essence casts Friends with the desk gnome and goes up to him
  • The HoJ is closed right now, the gnome is the cleric for the night shift
  • There’s a drunk tank in the HoJ - used to be in the prison
  • Essence persuades the cleric to show him around with some flattery
    • He asks for a bribe, Essence hands over an illusion coin and the gnome asks the goliaths to open the steel doors
  • There’s a fine mesh cage inside with a door - that’s the drunk tank
  • In the middle of the room is a high stone chair with a spoked wheel symbol above it
  • Closer to the door are some seats and tables for witnesses, defendents, etc
  • At the back is the door to the prison - the cleric says “the new guard went a bit crazy”
  • Captain Grumble has to look after the prisoners while the prison is closed, adding to his grumpiness
• Essence reveals that we’re here to take down the murderbot, but doesn’t convince the gnome
  • So he goes invisible and sprints towards the prison door
  • Tries to pick the lock on the door, doesn’t quite manage it
  • A goliath grabs Mordoe and Tetuel and starts pushing them towards the door
  • Regi tries and fails to pickpocket the keys from the cleric, so the gnome orders the goliaths to put us all in the drunk tank
  • Essence casts Darkness and grabs the cleric’s key, opens the prison door
  • The drunk tank cage is electrified - the goliaths zap themselves in the darkness
  • We all move away from the goliath voices into the light
• Cleric: “Get out of here, close the door, get more guards!” They close the door and we hear scraping metal
  • The drunks are shouting at each other in the darkness. Essence drops the spell and the drunks ask us to let them out
  • Mordoe casts Detect Magic on the cage - it’s magic, the desks in the room are also magic, so is the judge’s chair
  • Jack sits in the judge’s chair and bangs the gavel - it’s very loud and the spoked wheel behind them lights up
• We prepare to open the door
  • Jack readies their bow on the raised chair, Tetuel and Essence lift hte bar off the door
  • Mordoe, sitting at the defendant’s bench, says “I didn’t help because I didn’t think of it” - being forced to say so by the table’s magic
• We pull the door open - inside are stairs downward into darkness - a winding tunnel and a stench of blood
  • Tetuel prepares sling and a torch, Essence projects his voice down and we hear a slight grinding noise
  • Tetuel continues stealthily down to the bottom of the steps, out of sight
  • There’s a closed steel gate with 2 dismembered bodies reaching through. He unlocks the gate with the key and the path starts to turn. There are several bodies around, including guards
  • Mordoe’s curiosity gets the better of him and he follows after Tetuel, reaching him by the gate
  • T+M continue on until they find a room with a lever and a dead guard. Tetuel needs little convincing to pull the lever and there’s a humming noise. They run all the way out to the others as the lights turn on, feeling a little foolish
  • Everyone heading in now, Mordoe wildshapes into a ginger bear (Beardoe)
  • Beardoe shoves open a locked gate and finds a room with beds and bookshelves - no bodies in here, appears to be the guards’ quarters
  • Beardoe finds the cells and starts looking in - just bodies, except one cell has a pile of rags. Regi picks the lock
  • A guy jumps up from under the pile of cloths - refers to the gate as “my gate”
    • Really gaunt, slightly elven features - says he’s a Drow but Essence doesn’t recognise him as one
    • Eath(?) Shadowseeker, says he’s in for a murder he didn’t commit
    • Had been eating his cellmate - only Mordoe and Essence (I think) realise this
    • We let him leave, Tetuel giving him a ration
  • The corridor opens up a bit into a room with more cells, more bodies
• Mordoe sticks his head round the corner into another room and sees two red lights, and there’s a powering up noise. Roll initiative.
  • It doesn’t really have a head or face, and it’s holding a huge sword in one of two hands
  • Regi casts Heroism on Tetuel, Essence and himself - immune to being frightened, 3 temporary hit points and back up to 3 temporary hitpoints at the end of each of their turns
  • The robot runs at Mordoe, punches him (21 damage WTF), breaks bear form, but Mordoe turns back into Beardoe
  • Tetuel shouts “Heads up fucko!” and dinks the robot with his sling, then drops it and punches the robot but his fists bounce off
  • Essence whacks the robot with his warhammer and hexblade’s curses it
  • Jack hunter’s marks it, shoots it with a lightning arrow (which fizzles with electricity but doesn’t seem to do a lot), then a regular arrow
  • Regi viciously mocks the robot, heals Mordoe
  • The robot punches Essence for 21, Tetuel for 23 - ouch!
  • Mordoe tries to grapple the robot and succeeds. Tetuel knocks it prone (Mordoe goes with it).
  • Essence throws away his shield, grabs his warhammer with both hands and misses
  • Even though the robot is prone Jack still hits it. Cracks are appearing in its armour
  • Regi, still concentrating on Heroism, mocks the guardian and inspires Essence
  • The robot can’t get up so punches and slashes at Beardoe, taking down his bear form and knocking him unconscious. It stands up - “Let’s dance, bitches”
  • Tetuel hits it, chugs a potion, Essence hits it hard with his hammer. Jack shoots another lightning arrow but misses
  • The robot takes Essence down and goes for Tetuel but misses his head. Essence miraculously comes back at 1HP
  • Jack shoots the robot through the faceplate, killing it. It goes to swing again and shuts down.

SCHEDULED: <2023-06-08 Thu>

• Jack has just defeated Murderbot
• We look for Trix’s parents - not finding anyone alive - there are some gnomes but they don’t look like Trix
  • Eventually we find them together
• Jack tries to get the guardian’s power core out with a crowbar, but it’s well secured. Tetuel opens it with tinker’s tools and Mordoe wraps it in a blanket
• Tetuel turns off the lights to mess with the others, turns them back on just after Jack lights a torch
• We had back up to the top
  • The door to the Hall of Justice was closed - the person holding it shouts “NO!” as we try the door, and Tetuel kicks it open
  • The room is full of about 20 drunk people running around and yelling about letting the robot out - we close the door behind us
  • Jack bangs on the main Hall of Justice door - a Goliath answers and tells us the doors will open in the morning. Jack sits on the judges chair with voice amplification - “BRING ME MY LUNCH”
  • Mordoe gathers some drunks back into the drunk tank - we take a short rest while waiting. Tetuel plays the flute to entertain the drunks
• 2 hours go by and the doors are flung open. A few gnomes and ~10 goliaths walk in
  • One official-looking gnome in bright robes starts establishing order. We feel an overwhelming urge to be honest (except for Essence, who becomes aware of the magic)
  • “My name is Lady Justice!” - asks for the truth, starting with our names
  • She sends a Goliath, Thunderhammer, to check the prison for the murderbot. He flings it into the courtroom - “They’re telling the truth boss”. We also get out the power core as evidence while he does that
  • Lady Justice tries to hide that she knew about the murderbot
  • We say Captain Grumble would vouch for us and eventually he arrives. He confirms that the murderbot was the reason the jail was locked
  • Regi uses Prestidigitation to create a fake key on the clerk who let us in - it lasts long enough to confuse the court. The judge sentences the clerk - Alfie Byswater" to 1 month hard labour
  • Time for sentencing - breaking in - reduced to a fine because of Captain Grumble’s testimony. 1000GP each
  • Tetuel asks them to count the drunks - check against Alfie’s records - 18 were recorded but there are 19 in the drunk tank
  • They figure out which was the odd one out - he’s definitely lying so gets put in a truth chair
    • He’s been down there for weeks and has already done his time
    • Real name is Elith(?) Shadowseeker, in for murder
    • Judge: Service complete, free to go, do not return to the city or they will rip his arms off. He leaves
  • Mordoe to a Goliath - “It’s really nice not being the only tall person in the room” - has a nice chat with the goliath guard
  • Alfie the clerk - sentence reduced - will spend the night cleaning the jail and will work unpaid for 4 weeks
    • We are also required to clean the jail
  • Judge says there should also be a reward for dealing with the murderbot, but only the high council can give that
• We set to work cleaning the jail
  • We bring out the bodies - Mordoe puts Trix’s parents next to each other, Tetuel covers them with his cloak
  • Gremble arrives - Mordoe hands over the power core and leads him to the bodies of Trix’s parents
  • “It’s all my fault, they shouldn’t have been here, it’s all my fault”
• Captain Grumble takes us to the council chamber - out in the upper sphere of governance, people are starting to turn up for work
  • In the council chamber we see the high council. 5 figures - 2 gnomish, 1 human, 1 dwarf, 1 obscured
  • Essence speaks for us - they propose we are rewarded 1000GP each to cancel out the fine
  • We must leave the city today and not return for some period of time - not banishing us, but best if we’re not seen here for a while
  • Afterwards a hooded figure stands up - “I have a much better use” - it’s Lady Margaret Lefay. She offers us a quest
• We meet Lady Lefay in an adjacent room
  • “What do you know of the blooddrinkers?”
  • “They are a group that has come together to form a higher society that controls the country”
  • They drink blood to extend their lives, performing acts of necromancy
  • They’ve targeted individuals and cursed/blessed them (depending on your point of view) with extended life in exchange for power/control
  • Sounds like Lord Garrow - Regi shows her the ring and the note
    • “It seems you’ve already mixed with them”
  • She had been searching for Lord Garrow in Lark’s Cutting and had got very close
  • Lord Garrow’s “research” from his note sounds like a sect/cult looking into mixing blood to live longer/better
  • Lady Lefay would like to hire us for 2 reasons - we’re already involved and there are places where her usual contacts would stand out
  • She has a necklace with a single red bead - she presses Mordoe’s blood around it and it pulses faster - evocation magic
  • Tetuel insight checks her, thinking she might be one of the Blooddrinkers herself (secret hidden below)
  • She works with the Dawnbringers - show them her symbol and they’ll know we’re working with her
    • They’re an ancient sect of monks found in some monasteries who opposes the blooddrinkers
  • The blooddrinkers have been using gangs to collect waifs and strays that people won’t notice
  • She requests we gather information on the blooddrinkers, report to the Arconsphere tower in 3 months
  • Doesn’t sound suspicious of Charis Ulrich
  • On the matter of salary
    • Someone mentioned a centaur heart - she puts a wand at Regi’s throat and warns us not to tell too many people about that
    • We agree on 900GP each - 10GP/day each, IF we bring evidence of destroying some of the blooddrinkers
    • Plus 50GP up front each
    • Plus 50GP per blood drinker we bring evidence of destroying. Something undeniably a blood drinker - one fang will do
  • Any info about how to kill the blooddrinkers?
    • Hard to track - they avoid sunlight
    • Hit them enough - sunlight is effective
    • They transform into bats (we encountered that)
    • They’re remarkably resilient
    • Seek out the Dawnbringers - Lady Lefay is more of an intel person
  • Jack gets our map out - asks where there’s any blooddrinker activity - all across the map
  • The Greycoats are an organisation on the shadier side of life
    • May be associated with Crystal’s Polish
    • If there’s illegality, the Greycoats have a hand in it
  • If Margaret has moved on when we get there, the deal still holds when we find her
  • The pirates who kidnapped her - she doesn’t think it was just bad luck, they’re probably related to the blooddrinkers
  • She leaves through a bookcase

• Mordoe and Jack head to the temple to see Trix and break the news about her parents
  • She’s excited when she sees them - Mordoe+Jack head out to find Gremble and he’s there talking to Zhen
  • Gremble says her parents fought fiercely beside us and fell at the last minute. She goes quiet, goes outside alone and sits kicking a stone
  • Mordoe talks to Gremble - offers to see if we can get Trix an apprenticeship at the Arconsphere
  • Jack offers Trix Janet to pat
• Regi, Essence and Tetuel head to the docks to find a boat (and avoid seeing Trix)
  • Harbormaster’s office - no boats for 3 days - then Big Bertha will be going the wrong way
  • Charter one? Captain Dan has a boat we could hire - bit cosy for the 5 of us
    • Would probably take a couple of weeks - 75GP/day -> 2100GP for 28 days
    • Or ~3 weeks on horseback by road, ~75GP/horse
  • We head back up to find a stable
• Mordoe collects the wolf head hat

SCHEDULED: <2023-06-19 Mon>

• We ask a guard where the stables are - by the gate
• Horse shop is Nickers & Neighs
  • There’s a woman with hard grey skin (Thantria?) that looks like it could crack at any moment
    • Sounds kinda like Eeyore - very slow and gentle speaking, a little depressed sounding
  • She has a variety of horses and asks if we can handle them (animal handling check)
    • Regi, Essence and Tetuel will only be allowed to use the less fancy horses - draft horses, donkeys, maybe a regular riding horse
  • Jack talks to the war horse, Sergeant Captain Sergeant (Sarge). He’s quite posh, a big black imposing horse
  • Mordoe wants to get Sarge because he can definitely handle Mordoe’s weight
  • For the other three - 120GP for 2 draft horses, 20GP for the cart, 7GP for an extra saddle
  • We buy Sarge, a riding horse, 2 draft horses and a cart (2 people in cart, one person driving it), an extra saddle for a draft horse, along with a week of feed for the 4 horses
    • We name the draft horses Bait and Switch, and Jack finds out their horse is called La Toya
• We head back to Gremble’s - Trix is on the wall, Gremble is slowly sweeping
  • We accidentally give Gremble some bad ideas for the next guardian robot
  • Gremble doesn’t know what they’ll do for money - Trix says “don’t worry” and winks at Mordoe
  • Jack lets slip to Trix that we were going to try to get her into magic school
  • We say goodbye
• Setting off towards Lark’s Cutting based on the map - following the main road
  • The wind starts to pick up and it starts getting dark - we head off the road to make camp
  • Jack finds food - rabbits (Janet catches her own)
  • Essence sleeps in the cart, in the morning Janet wakes Jack up and goes to eat Mordoe’s rations in the cart
• Day 2
  • The wind picks up and gets heavier, we’re struggling - stop to find shelter behind a stony outcrop. Mordoe’s blanket gets blown away
  • After a couple of hourse the wind dies down and we carry on for another few hours before making camp
  • On watch, Mordoe hears a little clicking noise next to the tent. Casts Darkvision and sees a beaver chewing on the tent rope - 2 already chewed through
    • Mordoe casts Speak with Animals - the beaver is taking it down for lacking planning permission, mentions the council
    • Mordoe agrees to take the tent down - Tetuel says it’s too early for this, just collapse it on top of him and Regi
  • Jack takes final watch and Janet goes hunting, coming back with a dead beaver. We take that as our cue to get going, before the beaver council finds us
• Day 3
  • The path starts to wind and gets misty. There’s a tree across the path and we all look around very carefully
  • Tetuel jumps off the cart ready to use a draft horse to move the tree, and immediately a boulder rolls down to block the path behind the cart
  • There are bandits on both sides of the valley we’re in, once again
  • Jack and Essence shoot some, Mordoe calls lightning on another. Tetuel throws his sling by accident, runs up and kills the one struck by lightning
  • One magic user tries to cast Hold Person on Regi+Essence but both escape it. Another then holds Mordoe but Jack shrugs it off
  • Jack shoots EB as he hides behind the fallen tree’s branches
  • Tetuel takes down a few on the right-hand bank of the valley - the three magic users are on the other side
  • One runs up to Regi, says “It’s him!” and slashes at him
  • Essence gets taken down with 2 magic missiles and a scimitar on the left bank, Regi brings him back with Healing Word
  • Jack shoots down two of the magic users
  • One chugs a potion and starts moving very quickly (haste) - takes Regi down with 5 attacks at once
  • A mage magic missiles Tetuel and he somehow (Relentless Endurance) keeps going
  • Mordoe heals Regi to revive him and a wizard takes Tetuel down properly this time
  • Regi casts Dissonant Whispers on the captain and he runs, then revives Tetuel
  • One bandit grabs Regi and starts to drag him off. Another takes down Tetuel and punches him an extra time for good measure - 2 failed death saves. Regi brings him back with another healing word, then stabs backward into a bandit
  • Jack shoots the captain - taking him down

SCHEDULED: <2023-07-03 Mon>

• Various bodies around - Regi searches them
  • The weak bandits don’t have much - weapons+armour are messed up, 4GP, 36SP, 48CP
  • The mages have a green potion and 22GP, 10SP
  • The captains have:
    • An empty potion bottle
    • 2 scimitars - we put these on the cart
    • 2 daggers - Tetuel takes these
    • 20GP each
    • A piece of paper with the bounty
      • Sketch of Regi on one side, with us on the background (but Cyra instead of Jack)
      • 75GP alive, 30 dead, 10 for extra people (dead)
      • Delivered to Crystal’s Polish
• At this point we notice Sarge is missing - is he secretly a coward?
  • Jack goes searching - the reins were untied, not pulled off by Sarge. His hoof prints go uphill and abruptly disappear
  • Mordoe casts Detect Magic - there’s a green natural energy around the footprints and the trees nearby have necromantic energy. Something about the trees round here isn’t quite natural
  • Mordoe steps forward and gets grabbed by a hand from behind a tree
    • Regi hears a voice say “I know you, I do, I do” and keep repeating itself
  • There’s a crackling energy noise and now there’s a huge bear - lifts Mordoe off the ground and bounds away extremely fast
• Jack stealthily follows Mordoe and the bear, the rest of us stay to recover from the fight (tie the remaining horses to the tree and take a short rest)
  • The bear is a Great Bear - ~11ft tall standing up
  • Jack leaves a trail by marking trees with chalk
  • Jack catches up with them as they cross a body of stagnant water covered in lilypads - there’s something in the water
  • They pick up a rock and chuck it onto a lilypad. Nothing. Another into the water and there’s a flash of white at the surface as it falls in
  • Jack jumps across the lilypads and somehow makes it across in about 15 minutes with only a small slip on the last jump
• Jack comes to a glade with Sarge, Mordoe and a small individual with a staff muttering to himself
  • It’s an extremely old and quite dirty gnome - if Mordoe was a gnome this would be him
  • Jack starts casting Speak with Animals, but the gnome notices so they step out and say hello
    • Gnome: “I can see you I can I can”
    • Jack: “You took my friend and his horse”
    • Jack: “Can I have my friend back?”
    • Gnome: “I have questions”, “I thought he was someone else”
  • The gnome hisses like a cat when he sees Jack’s axe, but relaxes when Jack explains it’s for slavers not trees
  • Gnome offers Jack food, Jack offers some cheese in return
    • The gnome’s hand turns into sharp claws when he needs to chop veg
  • Jack introduces themself and Janet. The gnome says his name is Aelar, and says hello to Janet in tiger
  • He can’t wake Mordoe back up - but wants to talk to him when he does. Jack takes a short rest
• Back at the cart, Regi feeds the horses and we set off, following Jack’s tracks
  • The brambles close in and snag us - Regi, Essence and Tetuel all start feeling woozy and are now poisoned
  • We reach the river with lilypads. Not expecting to be able to jump across, Essence casts Fly on Tetuel, Tetuel tries to carry him across
    • Drops him right in the middle, Essence casts Shield as he falls in and gets attacked, but whatever fish are in the water still manage to bite him as he climbs onto a lilypad
    • Tetuel grabs Regi and immediately drops him into the water (thanks poison for the disadvantage on all ability checks)
    • Instead of continuing to fail, Tetuel ties Regi to his back with rope and carries him across, then does the same for Essence. They just about manage it as the spell wears off and collapse into a pile
  • Heading down the narrow path, the trees are pushing together making it very difficult for us
  • After another half an hour we reach an opening. We can hear a horse and humming and try to be stealthy. Jack hears us - we hear them say that we’re not the smartest
• Regi, Essence and Tetuel emerge into the clearing and meet a wary Aelar
  • He doesn’t sound fond of Durgarshope, and doesn’t appreciate the tree cutting of Lark’s Cutting
  • Regi compliments Aelar’s glade and he relaxes
  • Essence accepts a puff of Aelar’s pipe and sees the world with abrupt clarity. The others see him staring at nothing and stroking his face
• We rest, waiting for Mordoe to wake up, and then he has a conversation with Aelar in druidic (the rest of us don’t know what’s said but Mordoe looks worried)
• Aelar says there is a dark energy in the woods (which Mordoe sensed earlier) - we decide to head back to the cart to investigate
  • On the way back the trees part for us. At the river Aelar casts Fly on 4 of us, slapping us across the river, then transforms into a giant eagle to carry Mordoe and Sarge across
  • The rest of us continue flying until we get back to the cart, a bit battered by branches. The horses are fortunately still there, as are the bodies
• Aelar casts Speak with Dead on the captain of the bandits, and gets us to prepare 5 questions
  • He pulls out the claw of an unknown beast and carves a tree symbol into the corpse’s face - it reanimates, arrows sticking out of it
  • 1. Why is there a bounty on Reginald?
    • Bounty placed because his family owes money
  • 2. Who placed the bounty?
    • Bounty was placed by (Captain Starsbush??? unintelligible) - the owners of the Crystal’s Polish
  • 3. Does he know the greycoats?
    • He is one! His coat is not grey though
  • 4. Are there more people coming for Regi?
    • Starts grinning - “Yes, they come and they will get you, pull out your entrails, your family will suffer for your insolence”
  • 5. Where is the Greycoats’ base?
    • “Hidden, secret, you will be taken there and tortured”
• We ask Aelar why the woods are unhappy
  • The spirit of the woods is Yennefer(?) - it’s not circling (the circle of life) - stuck
  • Be careful of sleeping in the woods - the forest may attack
  • Don’t cut the trees
• Who did he think Mordoe was?
  • Aelar’s friend who looks like Mordoe left about 1 moon ago, to go far from here in the east - Mordoe lives to the east too
  • Mordoe knows this person - realises it’s his sister
  • She got a message from the forest, that’s why she had to run off - danger coming, Mordoe’s sister must rescue (someone)
  • Forests may be turning dark elsewhere - dark creatures will come out - dark creatures from before and during the Chaos Times
  • If we find information - let the trees know - shows Mordoe how
• We hook the horses up to the fallen tree and pull it aside to clear the path
• Aelar doesn’t know of any monasteries
  • Blooddrinkers are breaking the circle of life, he gets angry at that
  • Cities might be a place to get information - libraries, books
  • Mordoe could commune with nature, with Yennefer?
• Aelar gives each of us some training - we level up to 6!

SCHEDULED: <2023-08-03 Thu>

• Aelar turns back into a bear and disappears into the woods
• Can we talk to Yennefer, the spirit of these woods?
  • Mordoe tries heading into the forest away from the road to talk to the plants
  • The daisies aren’t much use but are very enthusiastic
  • A big oak tree speaks very slowly - it hasn’t heard from the ancient spirit in many seasons
    • Its brothers speak of anger, treachery and darkness
    • Says we should follow the way back to the life source - in each forest is the source
    • Look for the corruption - where it becomes darker, “plants are not plants”, “conkers fall in the spring”, etc
  • When the oak tree requests someone with long fingers, Regi climbs it looking for a hole to be cleared out
    • Clears the bird poop out the hole and sees something shiny
    • Pulls it out and sees it’s a gold ring with a small green gem - Regi pockets it subtly without us noticing
  • Mordoe asks the oak tree which way the corruption is. The tree - Oakie - says it’s the direction the sun is in the way the longest, the way the moss doesn’t like - South.
• We need to go south but the road is east-west and the forest is too dense for the cart. We decide to continue on a bit further away from the bandits’ bodies and find somewhere to leave it
  • After a couple of hours we finally find a clearing by a fallen tree
  • Essence volunteers to stay with the cart and look after the horses (Sophia is ill but we need Jack)
    • Mordoe casts Speak with Animals and tells Sarge he’s in charge
• We set off south - Jack leaves Janet with Essence
  • Left behind, Essence tries to meditate and connect to his patron
• It starts getting dark, and Jack can’t find a cave or clearing so we set up camp in the middle of the forest
  • Regi sets up his bedroll as a hammock using some rope
  • Jack takes first watch, then Mordoe - Mordoe finds a huge footprint and Jack points out it’s a huge bear, so we wake up and start looking
  • It’s even bigger than Aelar was, and is searching for food, gradually heading towards our camp
  • Regi casts Prestidigitation to make a tree behind the bear smell like fish. It looks confused at first and then gets angry, smashing the tree
  • We continue heading away from the bear and our stuff, before bedding down again
  • We survive the night but Tetuel and Jack are exhausted (Exhaustion level 1)
• We head back to the campsite - it’s ruined. Strong smell of bear piss and stuff strewn everywhere
  • Most things are ok but Tetuel’s bedroll is ruined and the bear ate half his rations. Regi’s bedroll is ruined
• We continue on to the south
  • There’s a clearing ahead, where we can see 5 huge (~8ft) purple creatures (Ettercaps) gathered around a giant spider. They’re all petting it and have a weird laugh and mandibles on their faces
  • Jack realises these aren’t natural - humanoid spiders? Perhaps they’re the corruption we’re looking for
  • Mordoe casts Speak with Animals and can understand the spider but not the spider people
    • Mordoe says hello - “Whoa, talking food! Wicked!” - not again!
    • Tries to ask the spider where the heart of the forest is and offers it cheese in return - but it just wants meat and blood
      • Offers cider - nope, jerky - nope
• Regi (not understanding any of these but feeling threatened by the spider) throws his jar of moonshine at the spider
  • Mordoe lights it with Produce Flame - it explodes and the spider is already looking rough
  • The spider spits a web at Mordoe, restraining him
  • Spider guy A almost poisons Tetuel with a bite, another restrains Jack with a web
  • Regi kills the spider with Dissonant Whispers, Mordoe explodes and Ice Knife at spider guys D and A
  • Tetuel, nearly taken down, miraculously heals himself with the power of anger and the health is immediately slashed and bitten away again, before he’s also caught in a web and poisoned
  • Mordoe calls lightning down onto three of the spider guys, taking down one of them
  • Tetuel is taken down by another poisoned bite but somehow comes back up again
  • C, D and E attack Regi, Mordoe and Jack - Jack’s now poisoned too. Regi Dissonant Whispers D to death
  • Mordoe calls lightning on E and B, heals Tetuel
  • Tetuel finally takes down B, Regi Dissonant Whispers C, Mordoe calls lightning on C, it’s still not down!
  • Tetuel throws a dagger at E, Jack smacks it with the axe and splits it in 2, exploding in black ichor
  • Regi and Mordoe finally take down C with dissonant whispers and lightning. It turns into more goo
• The fight’s over and we break out of the webs
  • Mordoe goes over to talk to a tree - “The darkness is here” - trying to find out if we’re close to the heart of the forest
    • The tree convinces him to strip and touch the ground with bare feet, then “feel the decay” by putting his foot in a pile of poop
    • Once the tree tells him to “taste the decay” Mordoe catches on that the tree is messing with him
    • Mordoe kinda threatens the tree with Jack’s axe and the tree gets angry and dark
      • “Those creatures used to live here, then the darkness consumed them and they became… other” - Regi finds large (hand sized) spiders in the ichor that the bodies dissolved into
  • Regi finds other corpses - broken skeletons. 22GP, 38SP, 19CP, broken armour, a couple of longswords, one greataxe
  • Mordoe goes to talk to the daisies instead and gets a puff of hallucinogenic poison from a flower
    • Sees them all start dancing before Jack snaps him out of it
• Based on the tree’s hints that the darkness is below, we start digging to see if we can see anything
  • The soil goes from clay to a putrid black liquid that seeps back underground
  • After a bit the hole we dug looks normal
  • Mordoe lights some freshly exposed goo with Produce Flame and it explodes in a huge fireball
    • Regi, Jack and Mordoe are all thrown back and knocked out
    • Luckily Tetuel was standing slightly back and heals Jack, Jack heals Mordoe and Mordoe heals Regi
  • There’s now a tunnel where the explosion was

SCHEDULED: <2023-08-17 Thu>

• Regi, Jack, Tetuel and Mordoe take a short rest
• Back to Essence at the campsite the day before
  • Sits down and tries to meditate to talk to his patron, gets frustrated and gives up
  • Goes for a walk into the forest to clear his head
  • Gets lost and tries to climb a tree to get his bearings, grabs a snake and falls out of the tree with the snake biting him
  • Hears a voice “Oh god, here we go again” - his patron
    • She says “do things that entertain me, and I will grant you boons”
    • The voice offers a pact - “to call me, spray the blood of an innocent”
      • They will scream for help, the patron will hear
    • Essence touches hands with the being to strike the bargain
    • The patron asks about their previous deal - whose soul will he sacrifice?
      • Can deliver early if he chooses
    • Tells him to bite snake to find his way back
    • Essence asks one last question - what does he call her? She laughs and her voice fades
  • Essence come to, poisoned, exhausted and covered in snake bite wounds. The snake is still biting him
    • Bites the snake back and it leans in a direction - presumably towards camp
    • It works like a dowsing rod in his hand
  • He returns - all four horses are still there. Skins the snake, cooks it on the fire, fending off Janet
• The rest of us head back (a much shorter route) to meet Essence back at camp
  • Meanwhile Essence tries to make a guitar - it does successfully make some different notes!
  • On the group’s return Mordoe asks Sarge for a report - he decides Mordoe is a recruit and asks Mordoe to call him sir
  • Essence plays his “guitar” by the fire, Tetuel joins in on flute, Mordoe makes earmuffs for Sarge
    • Sarge promotes him to “squaddie” and declares himself to have been promoted to Captain Sergeant Captain
  • Long rest - watches are uneventful
• We set off again towards the hole - takes 6-7 hours to reach, so now mid-afternoon
  • Tetuel ties a rope around a tree and drops down the hole, bashes through a blockage into a tunnel. We all head in, Mordoe casting Darkvision on himself and Jack
  • The tunnel goes in both directions - Mordoe turns into Beardoe and smells that humans have gone to the right. We head that way
  • A sickly smell from the earth makes us cough, poisons Regi. We start seeing bioluminescent funghi
• Marching for another hour, we come to intertwined vines blocking our path
  • Essence eldritch blasts them and the vines writhe back - roll initiative
  • Two spore-firing mushrooms and some tree roots also assault us
  • The vines grab Mordoe and break his bear form, pulling him in
  • Tetuel stomps one mushroom, Jack kills the other and Essence eldritch blasts the roots, shattering them
  • Mordoe muscles his way out of the other side of the vines and Jack finishes them off, releasing a green pulse of energy and then black necrotic energy
• We continue on past the vines and come to a large cavern with a mirror-like black surface on the bottom
  • It’s a pond 40-60ft deep and appears to be water rather than the black goop from before
  • Essence cannonballs in and sinks to the bottom before realising there are huge leeches coming for him. Heads back up, his eldritch blasts causing a bloody leech free-for-all
  • Mordoe turns into a giant frog and swims past the distracted leeches with a rope tied to his leg. He finds a way through a tunnel and pulls the rope three times
  • The rest of us head through - Essence, Jack, Regi casts Hypnotic Pattern, dazing the leeches, then Tetuel comes through. Jack and Mordoe pull the rope back through
  • Regi appears to no longer be poisoned! Dries us with prestidigitation
• The passage starts twisting and turning until we reach another cavern 30ft in diameter
  • There’s a domed ceiling above, and a large set of bellows in the far corner. Nothing else
  • Essence pulls on the bellows and can’t move them, Mordoe pulls on them creating a huge gust of wind which forms faces and arms. Roll initiative
    • They appear to be some kind of creature but they’re entirely made of wind carrying debris
  • Jack’s axe hits but Regi’s non-magical rapire doesn’t do much
  • Regi gets thrown against the wall twice
  • Tetuel takes one wind thing down and Jack hacks the other down with an axe
• We try to find another way out of the room - no doors but part of the ceiling in the centre doesn’t match the rest
  • We prepare to take a short rest (will be next time)

SCHEDULED: <2023-08-31 Thu>

• We settle in for a short rest
  • Regi hears some footsteps above - something’s coming
  • A figure comes out of the ceiling upside down - relatively well dressed, carrying a satchel
    • “What are you doing?” - he thinks we might be spies and tells us this is a restricted area (scientific research facility), we should leave. He dips back through the ceiling
  • Mordoe spider climbs after him, passing through the illusory ceiling. The dude casts various fire spells at him and Mordoe falls back to the ground
  • Tetuel throws a grappling hook up and climbs up, the wizard throws more fire and a jar of black liquid which both miss
  • The others climb up and Jack shoots and kills the wizard. Mordoe stabilises him, and we blindfold and gag him. Mordoe picks him up
  • Regi investigates the jar of black goo - notices it moves around on its own. He tries to pour out a drop and it all tries to go out together. It seeps into the stone over about a minute
  • Essence disguises himself as the wizard - “Remember, you are all my prisoners, don’t talk unless talked to”
• We head down the tunnel for 20-25 minutes. It starts getting hotter and there’s a shimmering wall of blue fire ahead
  • Essence casts Dispel Magic and the flames disappear. There are a lot of arcane markings around, currently dormant. The passageway continues
  • Regi hears voices ahead
• Essence proceeds first through the archway ahead, still disguised.
  • There are 3 burly looking heavily armoured guys ahead, each standing by a large dark crystal, surrounding a ball of white crackling energy. Four robed figures meander around the room
  • There’s another exit on the other side, and near the crystals is a shiny piece of metal with a trough going to a tube. It drips black ichor into a jar
  • Essence: “I have found the cause of the disturbance”
    • “Geoffrey? Why are you here?”
    • E: “I found this lot”
    • “Why did you bring them here?”, “You are an apprentice, watch your tone.”
    • Essence Eldritch Blasts the master wizard
• Surprise round - “Ah! Kill them all!”
  • Some of the robed figures are just apprentices and are casting basic fire bolts
  • Mordoe drops Geoffrey and turns into Beardoe
  • One of the guards is a monk - he stuns Essence with a punch and takes him down with a second. Regi revives him with a Healing Word
  • One wizard (the master?): “You’re not supposed to be here, this is imperial business!”
  • Guard B misses Tetuel with a heavy crossbow, throws it away and pulls out a greatsword
  • The head wizard chugs a potion and casts Guiding Bolt on Beardoe, another wizard takes down his bear form with Burning Hands
  • Mordoe goes between two apprentices and casts Thunder Wave. One gets pasted over Tetuel and the other is thrown against a wall
  • The monk guard stuns Tetuel with a punch and says a few cocky lines while they spar. The greatsword guard takes Essence down again. Regi brings him back up with another Healing Word
  • Jack shoots the monk and he catches it, moves to Jack and starts punching them. Tetuel pointifies Gremble’s stick and stabs the monk through the face, killing him
  • A spark of energy jumps from the energy ball in the centre to the three crystals and circulates around a couple of times
  • Mordoe is in the field between crystals, gets cut through by a lightning bolt for 27 damage, almost gets killed. Runs out of there ASAP
  • Guard C, still standing by his crystal, gets told to kill us all by the head wizard as she runs out of the room. He takes Essence down again and approaches Regi
  • The greatsword guard takes Tetuel down but he comes back up. Regi casts Heat Metal on the guard’s plate armour. Mordoe brings Essence back up
  • Essence runs into the area between crystals and gets taken down again by a zap of lightning (having not seen Mordoe get hit because he was unconscious at the time)
  • Tetuel takes down guard B, Jack kills C with a fire arrow. The only remaining person is the head wizard who left through the back exit
  • Tetuel drags Essence out of the zap zone, Regi heals him up again
• Tetuel runs after the leader who ran but finds only a teleportation circle. She’s gone.
  • Essence knows this is high-level magic we probably won’t be able to use
  • Mordoe scuffs the teleportation circle (it was just chalk) and detects that there’s no magic in the circle any more, but the room we came from blazes with magic
• Back in the room, Regi looks at the three crystals. They’re black and about 2ft high, 2ft wide
  • The zaps of energy hit the plate and it drips goo each time
  • Regi moves a reflector and the sparks get worse. Mordoe realigns it but gets knocked unconscious
  • We search the room
    • Tetuel finds a greatsword, heavy crossbow and 150GP on B
    • Regi finds some used potion bottles and swaps out the filled bottle of black goo. The bottle asks him “Why do you take me? Why do you hurt me? Why?” His hands take necrotic damage, temporarily made skeletal
    • Jack heals Mordoe up, Mordoe tries to read one wizard’s notes and Jack offers their glasses. They’re notes on the production rate for bottles, volatility, notes not to use fire or touch the goo with flesh
    • The notes explain you can trap the energy with the 3 crystals by siphoning the energy of people. Probably explains why there was one strong person standing next to each crystal and why it’s now maybe zapping more?
• Maybe the energy ball in the middle is the spirit of the forest?
  • Mordoe tries to talk to it, nothing. Tries speak with plants, nothing. Talks in Druidic and it seems to respond - zaps when he asks it to
  • It seems to say yes to being the spirit of the forest. Seems like it might think destroying the crystals might free it but perhaps not sure
  • Mordoe tries to lasso a crystal and the rope is instantly destroyed
  • We all back up, grab Geoffrey and Jack readies their new heavy crossbow. The bolt bounces off
  • Essence shoots the crystal with Eldritch Blast and starts wearing away at it
  • After a minute it shatters with a huge crackle of energy and the others crack too. 4 of us are deafened
• In the mist and smoke a face appears looking down at us
  • In our heads it speaks to us - “Name?” “Why?” “Soul we are”
  • “Why are you here?” - Mordoe answers about the corruption
  • Mordoe feels the presence move over to him and hands on his face but there’s nothing there - “You know Aelar”
  • “Once was Yennefer. Now we are the forest wrath”
  • The spirit looks at each of us in turn. “One thief amongst you, one traitor amongst you. Rid the thief. Kill the traitor.”
    • What did they steal? “THEY. STOLE. ME.”
    • Regi still has the jar of goo from Geoffrey, takes it out and puts it on the ground. It explodes and the spirit grows
    • “One thief returns. One traitor still exists. Traitor to the forest.”
    • There was some confusion here about who actually took the firest bottle of black glue, bit of a retcon. Regi dropped the second bottle of goo when his hand turned necrotic - so she’s now satisfied.
  • “Do you want to save the life of this one?” Referring to Geoffrey - we say yes
  • “Who will you sacrifice in his place?” - we instantly all decide sacrificing Geoffrey is fine
  • Mordoe’s tongue starts to dissolve in his mouth - “The price has been paid”. Geoffrey’s body dissolves into black ichor and the black ichor turns into a green cloud
  • “We are not the only ones. This is the first. My sisters… Our spirits are being extracted to make into a weapon”
  • “My sisters live in different areas (i.e. not forest), tortured across the land”
  • “Where the land is large and wild you will find hte essence. We are the land.”
  • Mordoe asks about his village - she answers attacks, blood, smoke, flee, pain, hope, disappearance, confusion
  • Mordoe asks about his tongue - “We can give you a gift” - he can now speak telepathically
• Says they can free us (let us out) - a staircase forms leading upward

SCHEDULED: <2023-10-05 Thu>

• Heading up the staircase from the cave - the stairs are a bit spongy and the staircase starts sealing behind us!
  • We reach the surface - it’s still swampy but feels less malicious
• What do we know about the empire?
  • The Crestfall Empire stretches around this whole area
  • Towns are somewhat independent but there are imperial soldiers
  • We reckon the Arconsphere is probably pretty close with them
    • The wizards we fought may have been from the Arconsphere
    • Lady Lefay might not be happy if she finds out!
• Mordoe’s tongue is gone - he’s not feeling great but is having fun with the telepathy
• Jack figures out which way to go - the trees become more vibrant, bugs start appearing, we start to feel less depressed
• It takes 7-8 hours to reach the camp where we left the horses and Janet - now evening
  • Janet jumps on Jack, Sarge sniffs each of us. The camp doesn’t look obviously messed with
  • Jack hunts for some food
  • Mordoe tries to telepathically speak to Sarge. He’s very confused but eventually walks up to Mordoe, and understands that it’s Mordoe speaking
  • Regi uses Prestidigitation to start a fire. Tetuel puts up a tent and makes a bed of ferns/moss
  • Mordoe goes off for a few minutes and realises he can’t cast Speak with Plants, tries to send a vibes based message into a tree and just telepathically yells into our heads, startling us
• We go to sleep - nobody on watch but nothing happens. It’s now a lovely sunny day
• We hitch up the horses and continue east along the road for 5 or 6 uneventful days
• About a day from Lark’s Cutting we come to an unmarked fork in the road which isn’t on our map
  • A kid stands in the right fork and runs off down the path when Jack says hello
  • We decide this is giving bad vibes and take the left path instead
• Another day later we approach Lark’s Cutting towards dusk, worried about the gate being closed for the night
  • A guard at the gate stops us - “Halt. Name.” - “Toll. Pay the toll.”
  • These guards aren’t the same as before - they’re wearing different armour. This is black armour with full steel faceplates
  • Pay a toll of 10GP each or leave - we decide to turn back before they shoot us (one guard raises a handheld ballista)
• We camp out until daytime - Jack finds us somewhere in the woods nearby
  • Discussing what to do we decide to visit Mayor Trovoski’s estate - we had some suspicions that Charis Ulrich might have done something to do him, or maybe he’s a vampire
  • Overnight Tetuel hears heavy footsteps but doesn’t see what’s making them
  • On Mordoe’s watch a butterfly lands on his face and sits there - it’s huge and beautiful
    • He talks to it - Derek - it wants nectar… or children’s teeth
    • For some reason Mordoe allows it to climb in his mouth (to see what it’s like without a tongue) and it has a look around
    • It demonstrates what it can do, firing a fireball from his mouth and this wakes the rest of us up. Mordoe attempts to explain it away as a sneeze - maybe Yennefer also made him sneeze fireballs
    • Mordoe apologises to the burnt tree
• Dawn breaks and Jack leads us to the Mayor’s estate, leaving the horses except for Sarge. It takes about half an hour to walk there
  • Essence disguises himself as a tired old wizard
• It’s a well-kept manor with a 15ft high spiked fence around it and a metal gate
  • Beautiful gardens, 2 wings and 2 square towers with crenellations
  • There’s someone up in the towers, guards patrolling - black armour same as at the Lark’s Cutting gate, Regi sees silver fist insignia which we don’t recognise
• We approach the front gate (around 300ft away from the house) and the guards stop us
  • Jack says they’re here to see Yelena (the mayor’s wife) with a delivery - the guards are sceptical
    • “Like she’s been making orders where she is” - ominous
  • Old man Essence interjects in a gruff voice explaining that the order is some foodstuffs - Mordoe backs him up by bringing out a barrel and a wheel of cheese
  • Mordoe casts Detect Thoughts - they want us to leave funnily enough
  • Essence casts Friends on himself and says he’s a doctor and has a tincture to administer - the guards say his friends will have to wait here at the gate - Mordoe can come too to deliver the goods
• The smarter guard leads Essence and Mordoe into the house - there’s marble flooring, a magical chandelier
  • (There was another guard outside the door but he’s forgotten later so probably went to patrol the grounds)
  • Essence casts Hold Person on the guard, has a quick discussion with Mordoe and they decide to kill the guard and explore
  • Essence takes the guard down with 3 slashes of a summoned greatsword - Mordoe turns round after putting down the cheese and the guard is already dead on the floor
  • They explore - Essence going invisible and Mordoe wild shaping into a cat then a mouse. Each takes one wing of the house.
  • Essence
    • First room is a dining room left dishevelled
    • Hears kitchen noises through the next door - 2 dirty looking humans busy preparing food, tired looks on their faces
    • Another back door on the other side of the room - can’t make out any voices or noises
  • Mordoe
    • Goes through first room - didn’t note what this was
    • Finds a room with thick glass windows, a grand piano, rugs, etc, and a door out to the garden
    • Backtracks and sees the staircase in the entrance hall. Goes upstairs but can’t fit through the locked doors so heads back down
  • Essence heads back and upstairs - sees 2 locked doors and picks the left one, opening it carefully. There are 2 large guards standing at attention, looking out the window
• Back at the gate, Regi tries to persuade the guard to let us in to check on them
  • The guard says ok, but tells us to leave our weapons, which Regi and Jack aren’t keen on
  • 2 more guards and a 2-headed dog come up and tell the gate guard to get back to his post, start asking questions and then slit the gate guard’s throat
• Jack shoots the captain (one of the two) with their crossbow (surprise round)
  • Regi casts Haste on Tetuel - double speed, +2AC, 1 extra action - then backs off
  • Jack shoots again and gets Janet to run away
  • The captain runs up to Jack with a greatsword and starts slashing at them. The 2-headed dog runs up to Jack’s other side and gets them with a poisonous bite
  • There’s movement in the towers of the building - 4 bowmen all miss. The other ground guard attacks Jack and misses.
  • Tetuel takes down the captain with the pointy stick
  • Jack Hunters Marks the dog, drops their crossbow and pulls out their axe, chopping one of the dog’s heads off. Takes the other ground guard down
  • The bowmen rain down arrows at Jack but all miss
  • Tetuel sprints 270ft towards the tower and raises both middle fingers, indimidating 2 of the archers into ducking. He’s now 30ft away from the house
  • The other 2 guards shoot at Tetuel - he catches one arrow and the other misses. He attacks the glass of one window but it’s too thick to get through, runs round the left side and finds a back door
  • Inside, mouse Mordoe talks into the cooks’ heads, they think it’s a spirit. Mordoe goes with being a mouse ghost. They hit the mouse anyway and it explodes into Mordoe
  • Essence has the upstairs door slammed on him and hears it being blocked from inside, sees Regi and Jack outside surrounded by bodies, heads to the locked front door and checks the guard’s pockets for keys
  • Tetuel fails to break into the back door but cracks the glass
  • Mordoe talks to the cooks - the mayor and his wife are prisoners somewhere, the cooks haven’t left the kitchen in weeks, since Charis and his goons came
  • Essence finds gold, gems and a key in the guard’s pockets. He unlocks the front door and sees his allies and no enemies
  • Regi runs closer to the house and lies down to be hard to hit. Jack runs closer too.
  • Tetuel breaks the door glass and squeezes through, runs to the next door and through into the lobby. Sees the open front door - “Oh for fuck’s sake”
  • Regi opens the ever-smoking bottle and crawls diagonally closer to the building. Jack runs straight into the thick cloud of smoke and manages not to trip over
  • Mordoe asks the cooks if Charis was here - “Janquet” says yes, weeks ago, but probably not now. He came to discuss the town’s defence, and his guards locked the cooks in the kitchen and they’ve been trapped here since. Mordoe asks the other’s name - Margaret.
  • Essence enters the kitchen and drops invisibility. “Well hello there. I am a wizard here to save you from your plight. Where is your leader?” - there’s a wine cellar but they don’t know where it is despite one of them having worked here for 15 years. The butler who did know is dead
  • Tetuel meets Essence and Mordoe in the kitchen and Tetuel and Essence head upstairs to the left door with guards behind it. It’s been barred from inside - the handle turns but it can’t be opened. The guards on the other side say something like “the intruders are coming, prepare yourselves”

SCHEDULED: <2023-10-26 Thu>

• Tetuel and Essence are standing outside the left door upstairs - Essence Eldritch Blasts it and Tetuel punches it 4x (still hasted), breaking the door around the bar. The bar is all that’s left
  • Inside there’s a door to the right, with an overturned table and 2 guards behind it
  • Tetuel jumps in, sees there’s a third guard behind the table. Guards 1 and 2 have bows, guard 3 has heavy armour and a longsword
  • Tetuel hits 3 and pushes him into 1, knocking them both prone. The other guard shoots Tetuel, he catches it and throws it back (misses)
  • Jack and Regi are still in the cloud of smoke outside. Jack runs at full speed, Regi closes bottle and carries on running, out of the smoke
  • Mordoe steps into the dining room and tells the cooks to barricade the kitchen door
  • Guard 1 shoots at Tetuel, hits and then misses, cracking the window. Tetuel hits the downed sword guard (3) a load of times and moves round the table to guard 2
  • Guard 3 is looking rough now - he gets up and goes round the table to attack Tetuel
  • Mordoe dashes up to the top of the stairs
  • Essence enters the room and casts Eldritch Blast but misses
  • Jack continues dashing, now 30ft away, and Regi finally reaches the door
  • Tetuel takes down guard 3 with a Flurry of Blows headbutt, 2 pulls out daggers (I think) and takes Tetuel down, but he gets back up
  • Mordoe enters the room and instinctively attempts to cast Healing Word on a very bloodied Tetuel. It fails. Instead he casts a level 3 Ice Knife at guard 1, hits and the explosion hits 2. Essence follows up with an Eldritch Blast.
  • Jack continues dashing, reaches the top of the stairs, Regi reaches the doorway and casts Dissonant Whispers at guard 1
  • Guard 1 shoots Tetuel, guard 2 slashes him down and runs up to Mordoe
  • Mordoe smushes round next to Tetuel, casts Shillelagh and attacks 2 but misses
  • Essence continues Eldritch Blasting, Jack enters the room, drops their crossbow and pulls out an axe, slashing at guard 2
  • Regi casts Healing Word on Tetuel, bringing him back up. The guards attack Jack
  • Tetuel gets up and hits guard 2, then kicks him in the butt. Mordoe attacks 2 and misses, the guy doesn’t even turn around. Essence Eldritch Blasts 2 and explodes his head
  • Guard 2’s corpse rises again as a spectre, animated by eldritch magic. Essence instructs it - “Kill your friends.”
  • Jack slashes at 1 again, Regi casts Vicious Mockery, 1 attacks Tetuel, Tetuel hits back. Mordoe throws a miner’s pick at 1 but misses
  • The spectre flies through the table and tries to Life Drain guard 1 but fails - guard 1 says “Norman no!”. Jack chops 1’s head off
• Norman continues following orders and drifts through the door into the next room
  • Mordoe knocks on the door (for some reason) and tries to open it - it’s locked
  • Regi picks the lock, Mordoe prepares to open the door and gives Tetuel a potion (he chugs it)
• Mordoe opens the door and is faced with another upturned table. Behind it are 3 figures: 1, 5 and 2
  • The middle one (5) raises a hand and casts some flame towards us, Regi counterspells it. The other two fire arrows at Mordoe
  • Essence notices that Norm the spectre has turned into a pile of goo on the floor just inside the door
  • Regi re-casts Haste on Tetuel, hands him a Greater healing potion
  • The mage moves and casts Suggestion on Tetuel - “Run. Run far away.” Tetuel does, 135ft away into the fog outside.
  • Essence tries to cast Darkness on the mage but they counterspell it. Instead, Essence runs in and sees 6 - a soldier with a huge sword - standing right by the door
  • Jack moves to shoot the mage and 2 through the door. Guard 6 raises his sword and slashes at Essence but is blocked by his shield
  • Mordoe kills guard 1 with Ice Knife, Regi viciously mocks the mage
  • Regi viciously mocks and Dissonant Whispers the mage (counterspelled), the mage casts Magic Missile repeatedly at Essence, Essence runs around the table and smacks the mage with his warhammer
  • Jack shoots the mage and kills guard 2 with a shot through the eye
  • The soldier with the huge sword (6) attaks Mordoe and then Misty Steps out of the room to Jack
  • Tetuel runs all the way back in and knocks 6 to the ground. Jack attempts to stomp his head and then shoots him at point blank range with their crossbow
  • Meanwhile Essence destroys the mage with his warhammer, turning him into a pulp
  • The last man standing, 6, gets up, takes Jack down and misty steps out of the window. Tetuel smashes the window and jumps out after him, missing him twice and chugging a healing potion.
  • Mordoe stabilises Jack with his healers kit and Regi revives them with Healing Word
  • Essence follows Tetuel’s lead, leaping out the window, and falls unconscious upon hitting the ground
  • Guard 6 misty steps away agin but Tetuel keeps up easily. Mordoe runs out the front door and heals Tetuel, looks round and sees Essence’s body. Regi looks out the window and Healing Words Essence
  • Essence gets up again and Eldritch Blasts 6, Jack shoots 6 from the window right in the buttcheek, takes him down!
• We start searching bodies
  • Regi searches the mage, finds 2PP, 35GP, 12SP, a clear amber plaque the size of a hand - oval-shaped flat lump (can see a figure inside it), a piece of string 1ft long
  • Tetuel searches guard 6 - finds a greatsword and 10GP
  • Mordoe tries to knock on the kitchen door but can’t communicate as he can’t see the cooks - asks Regi to help convince them to let him in
  • Regi continues looting bodies first - greatsword, 30GP, small bronze key. Regi doesn’t know what’s going on but eventually the cooks open the door
  • One asks “Can you read my thoughts as well?” - Mordoe casts Detect Thoughts - something about carrots and cake - hopes we don’t find out about the cake
  • Essence and Tetuel are pulling bodies inside - one lady faints
  • The other recognises Jack and starts asking questions - she doesn’t believe Jack killed someone
    • The cake was for her birthday - they had to keep it a secret from the guards
  • We’re asking about the wine cellar. They don’t know where it is but maybe they have some ideas where it isn’t?
    • Not in the kitchen or dining doom, probably not the hallway (based on where she was when the butler came in with wine)
• We go up and look at the right door - it’s dirty and smeared. Mordoe crowbars it open (it wasn’t locked)
  • Inside the furniture is smashed, forming a kind of pit in the floor. There’s another door beyond, with a load of mattresses - looks like it’s where the guards have been sleeping
  • Mordoe honks the Staff of Birdcalls to call us in - Regi comes in and cleans up a little with Prestidigitation
• Mordoe goes to the library downstairs. Bookshelves, wooden floor, wooden sphere in frame, crystal chandelier. Fairly dusty - not used recently
  • Mordoe spins the sphere (which appears to be a globe) and it makes a crashing noise - he opens it and sees a load of broken bottles of alcohol
  • Investigates bookshelves but doesn’t see much
• Mordoe continues to the other room - there’s a rug and an easel with paints
  • He checks under the rug and can’t see anything but the rug wraps around him and starts crushing him
  • He screams wordlessly and Regi hears - Mordoe manages to free his head and throw off the rug
  • Regi walks in and sees Mordoe struggling with a rug. Mordoe: “The rug’s angry, please help” - Regi casts Hideous Laughter but it fails
  • The rug attacks Regi as he pulls the creepy dagger and tries to stab it
  • Essence arrives and Eldritch Blasts it into threads
  • The cooks arrive and say the rug was a security measure, seem sad that it’s destroyed
• Tetuel goes back to the upstairs room where we fought the mage - there’s a trapdoor in the ceiling and a ladder comes out. It goes up to the parapets, there’s not much up there.
• Regi notices dust around the house but some books are less dusty than others - 3 of them: Tax law, genealogy of races, elven-common dictionary
  • He pokes the genealogy book, takes 6 points psychic damage. Pulls the tax law book instead and the bookshelf starts turning, taking him with it and leaving him in darkness.
  • There are steps leading downward, and empty wine racks on either side. Regi pulls the book again to come back round
  • We discuss what to do
• Essence pays the cooks 25GP each - they can head to Longhorn to stay with one’s aunt (Tetuel told them to avoid Lark’s Cutting for now)
• We can go and long rest in the barracks room - leaving it here for now

SCHEDULED: <2023-11-23 Thu>

• Mordoe grabs sleeping stuff from upstairs and we have a long rest downstairs.
  • Tetuel takes the first watch up on the parapets. Mordoe goes next and sees a cart approaching ~20 minutes away, wakes up Tetuel
  • Mordoe goes to get Sarge from the gate and Tetuel wakes up the others
  • Can’t see any weapons on the person driving the cart, the cart looks heavily stacked
  • The house is on a hill so we can see it coming from far away
• Essence and Mordoe disguise themselves magically as guards and stand by the gate. Jack goes up to the parapets, Tetuel stands inside by the door and Regi waits at the top of the stairs.
• The cart arrives driven by an old guy. The cart is heavily loaded with supplies and pulled by 2 draft horses
  • Essence tells the dude he has to check the supplies - it’s meat, grains, water, etc
  • Mordoe gives the dude grunted responses when he tries to chat
  • The dude says the guy at the door usually pays him - Essence pays him 2GP 3SP, adds another 7SP for “timely arrival”
  • Essence intimidatingly tells the guy to leave the cart - the guy says he’ll pick it up tomorrow and hurries off
  • Mordoe pushes the cart to the front door
• We all head back to bed and Essence takes the final watch - now heading towards dark
• Afterwards, we headed down to the bookcase, hearing voices below - deep like a troll/ogre or something
  • Mordoe goes back to the cart and grabs a goat leg and a sack of veg, plus a small barrel of cider
  • The staircase down opens up to a 30ft square courtyard, with a 10ft tall hunched individual and a 6ft tall dog with glowing eyes
  • Mordoe goes down alone with the food and talks into the giant’s mind - “I bring you food”. The ogre thinks it’s the dog - “Sooty” - talking. “Nibble send you? You smell funny. Don’t smell like meat.”
  • Mordoe switches to Giant and suddenly the giant sounds very eloquent. He hands over the meat and the hill giant throws a chunk to Sooty - its jaws open far wider than they should
  • Mordoe asks how much food the giants wants. The giant thinks he’s slow, but also thinks Mordoe’s thought speech is Sooty speaking - “How about you go and get food? Raise hand for yes”
• We all head back out and Mordoe explains
  • They have a blue collar aound their necks - when they go upstairs it hurts them
  • Regi tries to see if the bookcase is magical - no
  • Mordoe returns with more food and tries+fails to cast Speak with Animals, instead turning bright green (all the same shade, like a plastic army man)
  • We squeeze back through and Mordoe heads down the stairs. The dog smells him and the giant can’t understand why Mordoe is now green
  • Mordoe tries to speak as Sooty - “It appears that this individual has been pranked” - the giant realises it’s not Sooty speaking
  • Very frustrating - Mordoe can’t say anything without being misinterpreted
• The giant threatens to eat Mordoe, he backs up and honks with the Staff of Birdcalls, we all prepare to rush in (roll initiative)
  • Regi casts Haste on Tetuel and we all gang up on the hellhound. Tetuel tries to carefully knock the dog out and it collapses into a ball and explodes into flame
  • Mordoe tries to cast Healing Spirit, fails and nothing appears to happen. Wild-shapes into a bear (still bright green!) and then we notice that his face is all melted looking
  • Tetuel knocks the giant prone and Essence gets a couple of hits in with his halberd
  • The giant gets back up and throws a rock at Jack, sending them flying back into the tunnel we entered through - Regi just sees Jack fly back out of the room with a boulder. Regi heals Jack
  • Tetuel knocks the giant down again and green-bear-Mordoe claws and bites the giant
  • Essence only manages to bounce off a couple of times with his halberd before the giant gets back up and takes him down, before picking Essence up and throwing him at Jack.
  • Jack gets back up and shoots the giant through his open mouth, he falls down dead
• Mordoe’s face appears to be actually moved around, not just an illusion. He casts Cure Wounds on Essence and it fails - there’s a burst of energy but we don’t notice anything
• Regi looks through the archway and says “Hey everybody there’s people here!”
  • He removes the gag of one person - it’s Albard Trovoski, his wife is next to him. Jack recognises them
  • Regi asks if the mayor is ok - he wants to be unlocked (funnily enough). Metal collars but not magical blue ones like the giant’s.
  • Regi tries to pick the mayor’s lock, fails and then remembers the key he picked up before (on the mage?) and that does unlock it. Undoes Yelena’s locks too
  • The mayor pushes on a stone, pulls out a bottle of wine, chugs it with Yelena
  • He wants to know what Regi knows - waves his hand over Regi’s face
  • Mayor notices Mordoe’s messed up face and that he’s been playing with wild magic and realises he’s telepathic
  • Yelena seems to be telepathic - Albard answers her without her saying anything
• Mayor explains - he invited Charis to discuss the rising threats in the woods
  • Charis brought in an ally called Nyble the Red (a wizard) - he cast a spell on them
    • Presumably that’s the wizard we killed upstairs
  • He wants us to raise the townsfolk to overthrow Charis
    • We could find evidence of Charis breaking the law
    • Or find the document Albard was forced to sign at the dinner with Charis that handed over absolute power
      • Albard tried to refuse but Charis then started cutting up the servants
  • There are multiple keeps in the forest - he can probably get us maps
  • Says vampires are superstition
• The giant was another tortured soul Nybel captured - Albard gives him a eulogy:
  • “Here likes Taktak Heavybelly of the Clan Heavybelly and his hellhound Sooty”
• Yelena heals Essence to bring him back up - the mayor recommends Essence keep his face hidden in town
  • Essence tries Dispel Magic on Mordoe - the green flows away and his face goes back to normal. It seems that the mayor can now charm Mordoe so maybe that’s the spell Mordoe accidentally cast
• The collars that the giant and hellhound were wearing cause pain when the wearer doesn’t follow the commands of the master
  • Regi immediately takes Taktak’s collar
• Regi shows Albard and Yelena the amber with a figure in
  • Yelena: “Marvelous. Absolutely marvelous.” - there’s someone trapped inside it
  • Not a clue how we could release them
• It’s now approaching dusk as we leave the cellar
  • When’s the next guard change? We have no idea

SCHEDULED: <2023-12-27 Wed>

• We’re not sure when the next guard change is - decide to go back to the horses
  • Mayor and Yelena can stay in the woods - what signal should we give them? We’ll just come and get them
• Mayor questions the creepy kid we saw before reaching Lark’s Cutting
  • Asks where the fork in the road is - is it new? But it looked old? What phase was the moon? New moon
  • There’s an old town legend - a wizard cursed a nearby village and it disappeared, reappears on a new moon. Supposedly filled with treasure or something
  • Jack recognises the legend, but we decide it’s probably not helpful/relevant right now
• Plan: Rest until early morning, scale the wall, hope we can reach the Church of the Dawnfather - not very near the wall
  • Or just go in the gate before they realise the mansion is messed up?
• We take some food from the delivery cart and head to where are horses are to take a long rest
  • Essence first watch - the Trovoskis go straight to sleep
  • Mordoe next - falls asleep for 2 hours and wakes up with a small tattoo of a flame on his right arm
  • Tetuel last - wakes up 5 hours later with glasses and a moustache drawn crudely on his face
• Mordoe pours water on his tattoo and it flickers like flames. Tetuel tries to wash off the glasses and moustache, and it flickers between various different designs
  • The mayor says he didn’t do it
  • Essence tries to disguise Tetuel’s marks and just manages to make him look like a French prostitute
• We get ready to go - currently about 6:30am
  • Mordoe briefs Sarge and turns into a cat
  • Essence disguises himself as a hooded figure with wrinkly hands (Cassandra), casts Invisibility
  • Tetuel wraps his face loosely with a bandage to hide the 2 sets of dodgy makeup
• Reach the gate and Mordoe and Essence walk through - a couple of guards throw stones at the cat but miss
  • The guards stop the other 3 of us - let Regi through after he explains he’s a musician, charge him 10GP
  • Jack gets into an argument about proving who they are instead of just paying the 10GP - Tetuel eventually grumpily nudges them and hands them 10GP to move on
  • The guards let Tetuel through for another 10GP, asking how he plays the flute with the bandages on - Tetuel just says “I kinda make a hole”
• Jack immediately runs back to Jack’s Rest
  • Amordella slaps them for only sending a message by boat, and then gives them a hug
  • Jack wants to dump ale on the guard at the gate for being a dick, but is strongly advised to stay away from the guards
    • You have to be careful around the black guard, people who disagree with them have been disappearing
  • They thought Mayor Trovoski was fine - they’ve been receiving messages “from him”
  • They don’t really believe Jack’s adventures happened
  • Tom Farrell (the good woodsman) got “lost” about a week ago after the guards turned up - guards said he was killed by a monster
• Regi, Tetuel and cat-Mordoe head to the church to see Father Huel
  • It’s not looking very well kept and has 2 black guards outside the door
  • The guards say they need permission from Charis to see Father Huel, then they throw a stone at the cat and miss
  • Regi + Tetuel walk off to try to look around the other side of the church, but have to keep their distance as it’s at the top of the hill
  • Cat-Mordoe jumps into an open window and sees Father Huel, telepathically says “Don’t panic” and tries to explain to Father Huel but not very well. Eventually gives up and transforms back to Mordoe
    • Father Huel asks why Mordoe is talking in his head - Mordoe just points at his lack of tongue - “Oh you have a tale to tell”
  • Mordoe asks what’s going on
    • “Jack was attacked outside of town” - there was even a body brought in (not much left of it) - Charis arranged a funeral pyre
    • Tom Farrell has also disappeared
    • Why is Father Huel locked in the church? He disagreed with Charis implementing martial law and was put in here “to protect him from any angry townsfolk”
    • Mordoe sees Tetuel and Regi in an alleyway and gives a telepathic rundown, they try to ask by charades what the supposed monster is (unsuccessfully)
  • Jack arrives at the church with food, offers some to the guards, and is let in (even though they had heard Jack was dead)
  • Father Huel overreacts to Jack’s reappearance - suggests it would be a bad idea for Jack to walk around outside
  • Jack mentions we have the mayor - Father Huel thinks that would help as evidence of Charis’s dodgy dealings
  • Mordoe asks Huel about his flame tattoo - “You’ve been marked. You’ve got a prankster” - we’re cursed and they can track exactly where we are
  • Tetuel sneaks up to the window at Mordoe’s request - Mordoe asks Huel if he can remove the curse - not easily
  • Charis will either be in the guildmasters place or Haley’s Delight. He’s now moved permanently into the guildmaster’s place
  • We ask what “killed” Tom Farrell? Something “made of night and shadow and claw and tooth”
  • Elaine was sent upriver with Jessie and Jamie
  • Tom refused to believe the corpse was Jack
  • Does Huel have a way to get messages out to the village, not through Charis? No. Jack tells Huel to put a candle in the window if he needs help
• Meanwhile, Essence heads to where he thinks Charis would be - Haley’s Delight (while still invisible)
  • 3 storey building, curtains across all windows
  • Armoured half-orc guards (not in black armour)
  • Sees a locked beer hatch but doesn’t try to get in
  • Tries listening at the window - can hear music and laughter and smell tobacco. Can hear a clicking and scraping noise
  • Heads to the guildmasters hall instead
    • Beautifully carved wooden building with guards outside
    • Didn’t see any alternative entrances
  • Observes the general atmosphere of the town - people are hurrying around, no vagrants he can see
• Essence heads towards the church and switches disguise to one of the non black armoured half orc guards from the inn once his invisibility drops
  • We all meet up again in the streets

SCHEDULED: <2024-01-04 Thu>

• Essence meets the others and disguises himself as a guard, escorts them to Jack’s Rest
  • Jack’s parents look pleased to see us but are confused about Essence (now disguised as Brian disguised as a guard)
  • We book 3 rooms for tonight - 6 GP - and head upstairs
  • Amordella asks why we’re hanging out with a guard and we explain to her and Jack (Jack’s dad)
  • They made it clear that the guards weren’t welcome here so the guards go to Haley’s Delight
  • They ask where Mordoe is and we point out the cat - he speaks into their heads, surprising them
  • We try to explain what’s been happening and ask what’s going on in Lark’s Cutting
    • Charis brought in money - unusually good deals for the wood they chopped
    • Some of the guards are mercenaries, some are “something else” and don’t ever leave their posts
  • Jack’s dad realises Essence is a Tiefling
  • We asked about shopkeepers - most are still doing business. Madame Ysir, Mack (of Mack’s Tacks)
  • Charis stays in the guildhouse and goes to Haley’s Delight for his evening meal
  • There’s a dusk curfew, except for guards and Charis of course
  • Charis walks around with a group of 4 people
    • Short fellow, wears black, 1 squinty eye
    • Big hulking woman(?), grey, 8.5ft tall, 3x as wide as Mordoe, looks a bit like a boulder, no hair, very short nose
    • Slippery individual who wears a red robe, face obscured by cowl
    • Another who keeps going on about how the death goddess will protect us all
      • Tetuel wonders about this later - maybe the Raven (queen?)?
  • Some families have been driven out
    • Guild/council members were among them (so now Charis has even more power)
    • The new guards are probably staying in the homes they vacated
• We decide - Jack will head out to woods to check on Albard and Yelena and maybe look for Tom - they head out
  • Mordoe, Tetuel, Essence and Regi will do recon around the town - check on shopkeepers
    • Trojan at The Heavy Hand hasn’t been seen at Jack’s Rest in a while
  • Tetuel checks out the roofs out of the window - they look pretty solid (could be walkable if we needed to stay out of the streets temporarily)
  • Tetuel borrows Jack Sr’s green travelling cloak to hide his face
• Jack heads to the gate
  • The guard wants to charge 10GP for letting them out but Jack sees he just made it up - guard lets them out
  • There’s a rustle as several guards simultaneously point directly at Jack like weather vanes
  • Jack heads into the woods to look for Tom’s hidey holes - nothing at the first
  • Second place - broken glass, a mark where an axe hit a tree, they find a trail
    • There was clearly a scrap with someone, some broken arrowheads, 2 dragged heel marks heading back towards town
    • They find some water bottles, arrows and a bed roll
• Next Jack heads to the mayor
  • The Trovoskis are sitting in the cart stroking a purring Janet - Janet immediately jumps onto Jack and starts licking them
  • Jack relays the situation in town - Albard says that Charis must have taken his seal
  • Jack makes a fire and hunts for food to avoid paying 10GP to get back in - hunts and butchers an elk
• Tetuel, Mordoe, Essence and Regi head to the Heavy Hand first
  • Trojan pushes the guard out of the way to let us in
  • Says the guards are “keeping us safe” (he quotes with obvious scepticism)
  • Tetuel sells his 2 greatswords, gets Trojan to repair the pointy stick, Regi sells some swords
• Madame Ysir’s next - Essence wanders off to avoid making any further deals with her!
  • No guards outside and she welcomes us in
  • Tetuel asks about what she considers a reasonable length of time for bringing her the centaur heart - she says midsummer (it’s now spring)
  • Mordoe pokes Tetuel to ask about the tattoos - she says the “prankster” will know exactly where we are
    • 2 ways to remove - convince the prankster to do it, or “experimental” magic. We decline for now but it might be of interest later
  • Mordoe hears Madame Ysir in his mind, admonishing him for talking to Tetuel without acknowledging her
    • So she’s telepathic too!
  • Madame Ysir says that Tetuel should be able to change what the tattoo looks like
    • Simply think hard what you want it to look like while washing it
    • She conjures a bowl and water and Tetuel makes his face stripy (performance check) - not very well but there are visible black horizontal stripes
  • She reaches into a bottomless chest to grap 2 slings for Tetuel
  • We buy 2 common and 1 greater healing potion, Regi buys a potion of invisibility
  • Suggests Mordoe could go to the healers for his tongue
    • The Sisters at the Abbey of Sarenrae may be able to help
    • There may be a monastery there attached to the abbey
• Essence heads around town - estimates that there are ~50 guards for the ~300 person town
  • He goes up to a guard outside one of the abandoned houses and says he’s been told to report there - the guard absolutely blanks him
  • Can’t tell if it’s watching him as he moves
  • Pushes its elbow - it immediately pulls out a blade and swings at him, but he jumps out of the way. It puts its blade away when he backs off
  • All the windows of the house are shuttered - Essence tries to go up to one and the guard starts walking around the house watching him
  • He walks off and it stays standing near the building. He goes out of sight and looks back, it’s gone back to standing by the door
• We meet back at Jack’s Rest (except for Jack)
  • Essence relays - there is a guard outside every single one of the 5 houses where someone suspiciously left - describes the guard’s actions
    • Says he thinks it’s a magical construct, explains how it left the door unguarded when he went round the house
• We decide to go investigate one of the constructs, at house 5
  • Mordoe takes a short rest first, to be able to Wild Shape again
  • Essence pokes the guard and walks around the corner, the guard follows
  • Regi approaches te door and the guard comes back with sword raised
  • Essence casts Dispel Magic and it stops, drooping forward
  • Tetuel checks the door - it’s locked. Regi breaks a pick and then opens it on the second try
  • Essence tries to lift the construct’s faceplate
    • It doesn’t budge. Poking through the faceplate he feels nothing and then something hard - eggcup sized sockets
    • Doesn’t manage to take the helmet off
  • Tetuel heads into the room - there’s a huge vat in the centre of the room about 1m across. All the furniture has been moved to the sides of the room
  • Mordoe stays sitting outside as a cat - Regi closes the door behind Tetuel, Essence and Regi
  • Essence goes to poke the liquid - it’s warm, about body temperature, red but browned on top
  • Outside, Mordoe sees the armour stand back up and look at him
  • Essence looks for arcane stuff and finds arcane sigils under a carpet!
  • Essence opens the shutters - Mordoe sees the guard head to window and swing at Essence - it hits twice before Regi and Tetuel drag him away from the window.
  • The guard moves back to the door
  • Mordoe sees shoppers walking past
  • Essence chugs a potion and uses a flask to scoop some blood. Tetuel pokes a quarterstaff in - it does seem to just be blood
• Mordoe sees Charis and his friends coming, warns Regi telepathically through the window
  • Regi, Essence and Tetuel go hide in the bedroom, on the opposite side from the opened window
  • Someone scritches cat-Mordoe
  • Charis asks the automaton for a report, it points around the house (to the open window)
  • They go around the side
    • Regi uses Prestidigitation to make a bang noise through the window (has to move into the main room to do it)
    • The goliath starts hitting the ground to make a bang in return, exasperating the others
  • Someone looks in the window, the halfling pulls himself up
    • Regi had to be in the middle of the room to make the noise, right by the vat. Luckily he quickly chugs the potion of invisibility
    • The halfling comes in and re-bars the shutters, muttering to himself about shoddy craftsmanship
    • Halfling walks up to the front door, pulls out a key and finds out it’s jammed locked. Charis asks if he saw anything - nothing obvious. Charis tells him to get the goliath
    • On hearing about the banging noise Charis says “we might have to accelerate our timescale. Prepare for tonight. Midnight.” - Only Mordoe hears this - they say they’re going to Haley’s for one last drink

SCHEDULED: <2024-01-18 Thu>

• We wait for Charis to go, then Regi knocks on the bedroom door and Essence opens it
  • Regi steps back and explains that he’s invisible because he had to chug the potion to avoid being seen
  • Regi opens the shutters that got closed, tries to wave at Mordoe but is invisible
  • The robo-guard doesn’t come to the window, Regi climbs out - still no attack, so he steps around the corner stealthily
  • Tetuel pours out the fuel from his lantern onto the carpet around the cauldron ready to set it on fire, Regi prepares a whiskey molotov cocktail (still invisible)
  • Tetuel dives out the window, Essence follows, the guard rounds the corner and swings at Essence. It stops and waits by the window
• Regi waits for the guard to go back to the door, lights his molotov and throws it in then starts running as the guard comes back round
  • A fire starts in the house, causing thick black smoke to rise
  • The guard automaton enters and cat-Mordoe hears it stamping out the fire. After about 18 seconds the fire is out but the building is still smoking, and the guard exits, visibly damaged
  • Mordoe leaves to join the others down the street - describes what he heard Charis say. We decide to head for the guildhall
• In the woods, Jack sees the smoke and interprets as a signal to bring Albard back. They pack up the cart and start heading toward the town gate
• The bell tolls for curfew - those of us inside the town head for the guildmaster’s hall
  • Essence shuffles along like a patrolling guard, Mordoe sneaks along as a cat, Regi sticks to the shadows and Tetuel acts like a fool as 2 guards turn up
  • The guards start questioning Essence, tell him to fine Tetuel and are disappointed he only asked for 3 gold. They demand 10 from Tetuel and hand Essence his 3, then start chatting
  • Tetuel sidles off while they argue
• It takes Jack about an hour to get to the gate but it’s sealed with nobody outside
  • Jack calls out “Hello? Is anyone there?”
  • The guard isn’t having it - “It’s after curfew, you’ll have to come back in the morning”
  • Jack turns the horses around and waits with the cart near the gate. Albard asks “now what?”
• Essence as “Brad” has a chat with the guard Darren
  • Darren asks where he’s from - Essence says Crestfall. Darren is from there too and asks what area and Essence manages to answer him without knowing anything about Crestfall. Essence says that he was caught doing something criminal and managed to get out because of his connections
  • The guards take “Brad” for a drink at Haley’s, Mordoe follows (but the others don’t notice)
• Regi arrives at the Guildhall, sees 2 guards outside
  • There’s 1 door on the front, the windows are shuttered, the building is 40ft wide and 120ft long, 25ft tall, has a chimney with a bit of smoke
• Essence arrives at Haley’s Delight, one guard pushes open the door as Mordoe says “please be careful” in Essence’s mind
  • There’s a smell of tobacco, beer, wine and a cosy atmosphere
  • About 15 guards inside, as well as Charis and his 4 cronies
  • “Francine” introduces herself - offers booth for “private entertainment” but Essence pretends he has no money. Darren says start with some beers, and that “they’ve got those weird buggers doing the night shift”
  • Darren likes the sound of his own voice so Essence gathers plenty of info about the guards
• Outside, Mordoe sees a faint mist start coming through the streets. Regi also notices the mist, and can see it coming from the guild hall
  • The mist is only at ground level - Regi and Tetuel debate climbing the guildmaster’s hall and decide to climb at the back. It takes a good few tries (with the robo-guard coming around each time), but eventually Regi manages to throw a grappling hook up and get it to hang on
  • They can now see the mist all around, seemingly emanating from the building. There’s a larger tendril of fog going to each of the abandoned houses (presumably with a vat of blood in each)
  • The chimney is huge - about 4ft wide - with no fire currently lit, just smouldering ashes
  • Tetuel lowers the rope down and hears no response inside, so he begins to climb down. He slips and falls, landing on something in the fireplace
• In the pub, Essence is advised by “Hard Head Darren” to piss outside lest he catch something from the toilet
  • It’s been about a month since the magical guards arrived
  • Darren says they’ve had about 20GP each worth of beer (Darren having drunk most of it) - getting ripped off
  • Charis and his cronies get up and leave
  • As Essence leaves, Francine approaches and says if he’s short on cash there are jobs on the noticeboard
    • 25GP bounty for finding Mars Toughonk (may have misread my writing here)
  • Mordoe sees Essence walk out and follows - it’s now cold and misty but Essence can see perfectly. He sees Charis’ group walking off with the mist opening around them
  • Essence shapeshifts into the beggar woman and they try to follow Charis through the mist
  • The group’s voices carry well through the mist
    • “That was the last time we’ll see this lot. I suppose we’ll collect the gold afterwards.”
    • “Farewell Lark’s Cutting, hello immortality”
    • Charis says to the guard outside the guildhall door “Whatever happens now, destroy anything that comes near”
• Tetuel looks around inside the dark guildhall
  • This room fills most of the hall, with a couple of doors beside the fireplace to presumably smaller rooms
  • There’s a ladder either side of the fireplace up to a walkway around the outside of the room (used to fit more people inside during guild discussions)
  • There’s a glowing pentagram in the middle of the floor, with another vat in the centre. At each point of the pentagram is a skull. In between the pentagram and the fireplace is an empty lectern
• Regi comes down the chimney more gently than Tetuel and steps out
  • Tetuel fires a sling bullet at the skull - it just bounces off. He stabs at the skull with the pointy stick - it caves in but rebounds again
  • The mist thickens and shadows close in. A key turns in the lock
  • Tetuel and Regi try to climb the rope up the chimney - Regi easily ascends but Tetuel struggles to get just out of view
  • They hear people enter and the goliath and halfling begin trying to light the fire - Regi puts it out with Prestidigitation
  • Charis enters and says “let’s start this ritual”. Tetuel drops down and attacks the goliath, Regi casts Haste on him
  • Tetuel attacks the halfling (III) - hits 4 times, misses twice. The halfling’s pretty hurt now. Tetuel runs up to Charis and says “what do you think you’re doing?”
  • The cleric (V) casts Hold Person, asks “what do you wanna do with him boss?” - Charis answers “Fix the other one, let’s… welcome our guest”
  • Regi casts Dissonant Whispers on the cleric from up in the chimney - “boss, I think the spell’s going out of control… I hear voices”
  • The goliath (IV) dashes at Tetuel and reaches him
  • Tetuel feels his body unlock, the halfling rogue heads away from the chimney towards Tetuel - says “Cruz, fucking kill him” at the goliath
  • Charis casts Friends on himself - “These guys aren’t that bad”
    • Tells Cruz the goliath to take Tetuel to lie down in the bedroom
    • Cruz is annoyed he can’t hit T but obeys, unlocks the bedroom (left room), tells Tetuel not to sleep in his bed (pile of bearskin rugs), locks the door behind Tetuel and there are magical words heard outside
  • Regi climbs back up to the roof
• Mordoe and Essence are just outside the guildhall
  • Mordoe turns back into himself and they discuss what the robo-guards are - constructs or undead?
  • They see the guard outside and decide to grab Father Huel
  • They head to the church (Mordoe going round the back) and tell him about the vats of blood
  • Huel says the workflow has been so effective because of the mist. He seems concerned about the non-people guards
  • Essence asks “Have you ever heard the phrase ‘the best defense is a good offense’?” - Huel says his fighting days are behind him but he can help
  • Father Huel sends a message to Regi - “Where are you?” and Regi replies - he know knows Regi and Tetuel are at the guildhall and that Tetuel might have been captured
  • Essence runs off to help before Father Huel can do anything, but he casts Enhance Ability - Bull Strength and Cat’s Grace (3rd level) and hands Mordoe a healing potion. Mordoe runs off towards the guildhall too
• Outside the wall, Jack notices the mist and realises it never mists like that here
  • They’re getting worried - they look for a better place to climb the wall, tell Janet to stay and effortlessly climb over the wall
  • Jack uses Primeval Awareness to investigate - searching for undead/fae/fiend/etc within a mile - detects only fae
• Essence, Mordoe and Jack all arrive back at the guildhall
  • Tetuel breaks out of Friends and Haste wears off
  • Charis: “Prepare the ritual” “In the realms of shadows-” - starts chanting, repeating himself as the darkness closes in and the vat of blood starts boiling
  • Tetuel fails to break the door, breaks out of the shutter, dives out and gets hit by the guard
• Regi pulls out Margaret Lefay’s calling card and thinks really hard about contacting her
  • “Highly concerning” - “If they are able to release a vampire’s spirit-” Regi: “Yes, that’s the one!”
  • “What colour is the moon?” - it’s red, clouds cover the sky but disappear in front of the moon
  • “Disrupt the ritual!” - separate the ritual caster a long way away, or break it - destroy the skulls with fire
  • On the lectern - the tome they are reading from is key - there’ll be a face on the front. Lady Lefay tells Regi to steal the tome
• Regi calls from the roof to Essence - “Can you see through smoke? How fast are you?” - more explanation
  • Uncaps the Eversmoking Bottle and throws it down the chimney, then runs to the edge of the roof
  • The cleric inside finds the bottle and plugs it - there’s still smoke lingering but it’ll fade. The cleric is just holding it shut with their hand (requires a command word to close)
  • Charis: “Open the shutters, let some of the smoke out” - he seems to think it’s his minions failing to light the fire properly
  • Mordoe casts Call Lightning on the roof and fails - gains an extra arm on his right side. Can now use a 2-handed weapon AND a shield
  • The guard now follows Tetuel around so he can’t jump in - Essence attacks it with his halberd and Tetuel joins in. Essence Hellish Rebukes the guard and sees a skull inside as it burns away
  • Essence runs at the open window and someone in robes stands there (having opened the shutters). he casts Darkness on the robed figure and Charis, and attacks the figure in the window
• TBC

SCHEDULED: <2024-02-08 Thu>

• The barbarian rages and runs to the lectern, Charis mutters a spell and the mist outside pulsates
• Jack shoots at the remaining guard bot, almost takes it down in one hit. Another guard turns up
• Regi Dissonant Whispers down the chimney
• Big armoured dude (V) shouts “there’s someone on the roof!”, steps into the chimney and casts Spiritual Weapon, creating a magical skull at the top of the chimney. He tries to climb the rope but fails, then commands the skull to hit Regi
• Tetuel runs round to the other side of the building, where there’s another open window
• Essence “does his best impression of a blender” and attacks into the darkness at the robed figure (II), only hits once - not a great impression
• The robed figure (II) runs to the goliath by the lectern and Essence hears them say something and slap the back of the goliath, then a bottle smashing
• Mordoe tries casting Healing Spirit, fails, the damaged robo-guard vanishes but Jack doesn’t feel their Hunter’s Mark drop. Mordoe then throws his belt through the window into the smoke and darkness, towards the lectern. The invisible guard attaks Essence and reappears
• The goliath says “Fuck this”, runs out of the window and charges at Tetuel, rages and swings with his greataxe
• Jack pins guard A to the wall with an arrow, killing it
• The mist rolls over Essence and Mordoe and they fall asleep. Essence’s darkness drops. The goliath barbarian and the new robo-guard both also fall asleep
• Regi climbs into the chimney and falls down onto the big armoured guy (V), knocking him prone
• The halfling walks up to Regi in the chimney and swings blindly in the smoke, slashing his ankles
• The big armoured guy (V) stands up next to Regi and casts Inflict Wounds for 23 damage - Regi’s concentration on Essence’s Haste drops
• Tetuel steps over the sleeping barbarian and attacks him with the staff - waking him then stunning him. He kicks the barbarian 15ft away from the building, then again another 15ft
• Jack wakes up Mordoe and Essence and steps away
• Regi casts Healing Word on himself and climbs up the rope but gets hit by the armoured guy. The halfling (III) throws a dagger up after Regi and then goes to the open window the goliath exited. The big guy (V) climbs up the chimney after Regi
• Tetuel continues attacking the stunned barbarian, nearly takes him down but runs off and stands next to the window
• Essence gets up and walks in through the window, feels something with his foot (Mordoe’s snake belt). Mordoe also heads in through the window into the smoke and sees the ritual circle for the first time
• The barbarian recovers from being stunned, rages, gets up and runs back to Tetuel before missing thrice
• Jack dashes in and makes their way around the side of the room
• The mist does stuff again and the barbarian starts laughing uncontrollably
• Regi kicks at the guy below him on the rope, casts Healing Word on himself again, clumbs up and is now standing next to the spiritual weapon on the roof
• The halfling throws daggers at Mordoe and the big guy climbs onto the roof next to Regi
• Tetuel hits the laughing barbarian, knocks him down and heads into the building towards the lectern. Charis releases his held action but misses Tetuel. Tetuel hits Charis, pushes him away from the lectern and runs after him. Essence hears the clashing and goes in their general direction
• The sorceror (II) runs along the balcony and sees Mordoe, tries to cast Hold Person but Mordoe shakes it off. Mordoe casts Produce Flame at one of the skulls and it looks damaged
• The barbarian makes a natural 20 and pops back up, rages and climbs the side of the building, reaching the roof
• Charis casts Thunderclap, gets Essence and Tetuel and the smoke is briefly pushed back. He casts Blood Curse of Bloated Agony on Tetuel
• Jack bumps into Tetuel, hits blindly (not realising who it is) and almost takes him down (relentless endurance saves him). Tetuel yells at them
• On the roof Regi casts Heat Metal on the cleric’s (V) armour - gives the kazoo a few toots, then chugs a potion of greater healing
• The halfling (III) attacks Mordoe, the cleric V turns to Regi and says “the grim reaper comes for you”. Regi takes necrotic damage (Inflict Wounds) and the giant floating skull spiritual weapon takes Regi down
• Tetuel heals with the power of rage and chugs a greater healing potion. Essence slashes at Charis but misses
• The sorceror (II) runs down to the lectern (in the smoke, unnoticed)
• Mordoe tries to cast Healing Spirit and succeeds this time - a butterfly appears in front of him. Misses the halfling with his club
• The barbarian yells down the chimney “We’ve got one of yours, he’s gonna die” as he dangles Regi down the chimney. The barbarian’s jaw is missing so it’s not very intelligible.
• Charis casts Thunderclap again and only Tetuel gets damaged this time. Casts an amplified version of Bloated Agony and screams in pain himself.
• Jack hits Charis after missing (now knows where he is thanks to the Thunderclap briefly clearing the smoke)
• The halfling (III) hits Mordoe again and hides in the mist
• The cleric says to the barbarian “Good job but we could do with you downstairs” - casts Cure Wounds III on the barbarian and sends the skull down the chimney
• Tetuel hits Charis, then misses and feels searing pain from the curse. Essence manages to hit Charis with his halberd.
• The sorceror dashes out the window and nobody notices
• The healing spirit heals Mordoe, Mordoe runs towards the sound of Regi’s taunting. Brushes past Tetuel and telepathically asks “who’s that?”
  • Tries to heal Regi with Healing Word but can only heal himself. Dashes up the chimney.
• The door opens and another robo-guard enters
• TBC

SCHEDULED: <2023-02-22 Wed>

• The fight
  • Cruz the barbarian drops Regi next to the chimney, says “Geronimo!” and rage drops down the chimney. Mordoe just barely manages to pull himself to the side to avoid being hit. Cruz slams Jack with his axe twice and they back away into the centre of the room
  • Charis retreats into the room behind him (with the beds), unnoticed in the smoke and noise
  • The halfling also runs out of the window the sorceror left, again unnoticed
  • Cruz: “Boss, what we doing?” Charis: “Plan B, Plan B - and quickly”. Tetuel notices Charis isn’t in front of him any more
  • The skull spiritual weapon attacks T and he hits back but his staff passes straight through it. Instead he opens the door Charis entered and sees Charis by the window. Tetuel runs and him and attacks but misses, feeling searing pain
  • Essence follows through the door and Eldritch Blasts Charis, but misses, hitting the wall behind him
  • The sorceror reaches Charis’s window and says “Aw shit boss” upon seeing how beaten up Charis is. Casts Hold Person on Tetuel and Essence but Tetuel shakes it off.
  • Mordoe finishes climbing the chimney and peeking over sees the unconscious Regi and the cleric. Tries to cast Healing Word, fails and starts hovering - no longer needs to hold onto the chimney. He stabilises Regi
  • Cruz says “Aargh, stupid plan B” and leaves out the window, joining the others by the corner of the building
  • Charis uses Disengage and steps out of the window, running around behind his allies
  • Jack hears guard bot H clunking toward them, swings at it but feels the axe glance off. Climbs up the ladder and the guard bot takes an attack of opportunity (has blind sight)
    • They see that the smoke isn’t spreading and realises that the bottle is either closed or not in the room
  • The mist outside pulses (frightening half of Charis’ lot)
  • The halfling climbs in through the window and chops Essence down then glares at Tetuel. Tetuel hits him twice, chugs a potion and retreats into the smoky doorway
  • The cleric climbs down the side of the building and joins the others
    • Mordoe floats after him to the edge of the roof and sees the 4 enemies below him - casts Ice Knife but the sorceror counterspells it, so he moves away from the edge again
  • Charis begins casting a spell - Mordoe hears him chanting
  • Jack shimmies out of a window on the other side and up to the roof. They cast Cure Wounds on Regi
  • Regi stands up, goes to the edge of the building and the barbarian immediately throws a javelin right at him. He responds with Dissonant Whispers - the barbarian starts bashing his head saying “Sad Cruz sad Cruz”
  • The halfling rogue searches Essence’s body, grabs a disguise kit and 120GP! The cleric casts Cure Wounds on Charis
  • Tetuel attacks guard H as it approaches him in the smoke, disengages and exits the window, heading towards Charis’ group at the rear of the building. The sorceror casts Hold Person and he locks up
  • Mordoe floats back to the edge of the roof, casts Ice Knife at the sorceror, the ice explodes and hits Charis and the cleric
    • Tetuel regains control of his limbs as the sorceror’s concentration on Hold Person drops, but the guard robot has followed him out and manages to hit him
    • Mordoe moves his Healing Spirit butterfly out from inside the building
  • The barbarian bunches up with the others and throws a trident at Regi, knocking him out again. Throws a handaxe at Tetuel but misses
• Charis completes his spell, there’s a snap, a white light envelopes them all and they disappear
• Jack reaches the edge of the roof and sees the two remaining guard robots - shoots and Hunter’s Marks the one near Tetuel
  • The mist pulses and the robot stands there shaking. Tetuel hits it and runs around to the bedroom window where Essence is, yelling “Essence is down! Inside!”
  • Mordoe flats down and tries to cast Healing Word, fails and instead grows a pair of bat wings - bat sized, around 1ft long. “Well, I tried.” - moves healing spirit toward the window
• Jack shoots guard H and runs to Regi. Both guardbots get frightened by the fog, Mordoe manages to cast Frostbite on guard H
• Tetuel climbs into the window, stabilises Essence and exits back to the healing spirit
• Jack casts Cure Wounds on Regi to revive him. Regi gets up, runs towards Jack and viciously mocks guard B
• Tetuel (injured) says “Change of plans - let’s get inside!” - gets in through the window again and tries to move to bed against it - it’s too heavy
  • Mordoe moves the healing spirit over Essence and helps Tetuel move the bed over the window
  • Outside, the guards stop still now that there’s nobody on the ground
• Jack shoots at the remanining guards, Regi does vicious mockery, Jack shoots one through the eye socket
• Mordoe takes the bearskin rug and Tetuel closes the bedroom door
• The smoke has now cleaered and the spiritual weapon has gone so we all head into the main room
  • Jack throws the blankets from the bed into the cauldron - they seem to dissolve and it changes colour
  • Essence kicks a skull - it hurts. Tries to pull it away and fails
• Jack fires a fire arrow at the skull Mordoe hit earlier - it explodes with energy and where Jack was their clothes flop into a pile and there’s an infant left there!
  • Mordoe runs over - Jack is about 1 year old now - he scoops Jack up and swaddles them in their cloak. Talks to Jack and they do respond. Picks up Jack’s stuff.
• The other 4 skulls are still glowing - the ritual is still somewhat active
  • Essence Eldritch Blasts another skull and turns into a zombie-ape creature
    • He shrugs and blasts another one - the skulls seem to no longer be reacting to his spell but are still sparkling
  • Regi pulls out his magical dagger and stabs one
    • Time stops for him as he stabs it
    • He hears a voice - “Welcome, wielder”… “Do you accept the gift?” Regi: “Yes”
    • He feels a surge of power and the dagger turns into a rapier. He feels immortal, powerful
  • Tetuel takes 10 minutes to destroy the skull with his stick and is blinded by pain
    • Completely blind, he walks along the wall back to the bedroom. Mordoe sets him on the bed and hands him baby Jack
  • Mordoe uses his flame cantrip to destroy the final skull
    • Mordoe, Regi and Essence now all have gills
    • Mordoe’s body is ice cold - his sweat freezes
    • His skin turns transparent too and his muscles and organs can be seen
    • The skull explodes with lightning, taking down Regi and Essence
• Mordoe stabilises Essence, Regi rolls a 3 on a death save and wakes back up (how?) with a thirst
  • Mordoe just sees that he’s still alive and shaking a bit
• The cauldron splits and cracks and the blood seeps into the floorboards. Mordoe looks out the window and the mist is dissipating. Goes into the other room to speak to Tetuel
• Regi feels like he needs to eat something, drink something
  • Sees both Essence laying unconscious and the blood seeping from the cauldron
  • Chooses to drink from the cauldron and feels a burning sensation - the blood is acidic
    • The blood seems to be healing him at the same rate as the acid is dissolving him
    • Sated, he stops drinking
• Mordoe explains to Tetuel what happened - we decide to have a rest.
  • Tetuel asks baby Jack “What do you think?”. Jack says “Yeah! I wanna nap!” - they can still speak
  • Mordoe goes to check on Regi. His face is melted by the acid, Mordoe asks “What the fuck did you do?” - Regi tries to play it cool
• Mordoe goes to check the other room that we never went into - the door is locked. He kicks it open.
  • Inside is a tastefully decorated office - a large desk, 2 heavy bookcases, 2 crystal decanters - one with red liquid and another with amber liquid
  • He grabs Essence and drags him into the office, suggests Regi should sleep there too
  • Puts Jack into the halfling’s small bed in the bedroom, helps Tetuel into one of the hammocks, and returns to the office
  • Regi searches the office and sees scratches on the floor by the desk
    • The desk is locked but he breaks in and finds 200GP and a large metal stamp with an emblem
    • Feels a hollow bottom on the drawer - sees a small black book inside. Can’t read the book but Mordoe uses the Text Specs
    • The part he reads seems to be a note about what’s happening in Lark’s Cutting, reads kinda like a poem (in Abyssal). Called the Shadow Prophecy
• We all settle in to rest
  • Essence finds himself in a strange twisting twilight - “Well, well, well. Far from home, aren’t we?”
  • “It appears you’re once again on the brink of death.” Essence: “I don’t have much left to bargain.”
  • “Would you like to make another bargain?” “No, doubling down on bargains does not appear to be working for me.”
  • She steps out of the shadows - piercing red eyes, black skin, tall (6.5-7ft), black shimmering scale armour
  • “Why don’t we have some fun, you and I?”
  • “You weren’t always an orphan, you might not be. Would you like to make a bargain for the knowledge?”
    • Ask one question, in exchange for one person in 24 hours
  • “You’ve already met someone who knows your mother” - Madame Ysir - “Why don’t you have a talk with her?”
  • “I might send you a messenger soon - I need someone who can be somewhere and do me a favour”
• We all take a long rest uneventfully
  • Regi’s face is now back to normal, Essence is conscious, Tetuel can see, Mordoe has only 2 hands and no wings, plus his skin is normal
  • Jack is still a baby, but now the size of a 3-year-old
  • It’s now dawn

SCHEDULED: <2024-03-20 Wed>

• Tetuel and Jack head into the study to join the others, Jack distracts themself playing with stuff laying around. They still look around 5 years old
  • Mordoe says he doesn’t trust Regi right now
  • The tome is gone, there’s a bloodstain on the floor from the broken cauldron
  • Mordoe looks out the window - the mist is gone and it’s a beautiful morning
  • Essence wakes up and sees he’s still a zombie ape - “why am I still this thing?” - dispels it on the second try
    • He also realises his money is gone - thinks it was probably the rogue
• What to do?
  • About the remaining guards?
  • About the ritual?
  • About the mayor?
    • Regi has his seal from the desk
• There are scrape marks under the desk - we move it, there’s a locked trapdoor underneath
  • Regi tries to pick it and fails. Essence summons a warhammer and smashes through it over a few minutes
  • The hammer comes back up red, there was a someone underneath! Regi casts Healing Word - his face heals but he’s still out cold
• It’s Tom Farrell! He gasps for breath, Tetuel cuts off his gag and frees his hands
  • Tom says he was out in the woods looking for “beasties” with Charis’ goons - got hit in the head. He’s confused as we try to explain what happened
  • He asks what we’re going to do. It’s dawn - the guards will be starting patrols
  • We show Tom the ritual circle - he’ll stay to explain if anyone comes in. Mordoe offers him some cheese and cider, Regi offers him normal rations. Essence stays with him
• The rest of us head to the church - there’s a guard outside but Regi walks up and just tips it over
  • Father Huel was ready to rush the door - “Jack? Why are you little?”
  • Huel is surprised Tom was in the hall. Offers to ring the town bell - which will gather everyone to the church, also offers to make breakfast
• We head to the gate
  • There’s a guard standing there looking around. Regi tries to sneak up and see how the gate would be opened. Mordoe disguises himself as the cleric from Charis’ party and walks up.
  • Guard: “We all done for the night?” Mordoe tries to gesture, guard replies “I can’t hear you. Lemme do the lock and come down”
  • As the guard heads down Mordoe turns into a cat and runs off. “Dharin? Dharin?”
  • Tetuel walks over with young Jack and intimidates the guard into letting them out. Jack then punches him in the nuts and slaps him in the face. He pushes Jack away and tells Regi to piss off
  • Tetuel goes to open the gate and the guard hits him. He continues opening it anyway and when the guard pulls out a whistle Regi casts Hideous Laughter
  • Tetuel picks up Jack and walks out the gate. The guard recovers and Regi starts Eldritch Blasting him as he runs, exploding his head
• We reach the cart - Albard and Yelena are still there
  • Janet is big enough and Jack is small enough to ride her, but she doesn’t let them
  • Albard is happy to head in and meet with Father Huel. Offers Regi a lift on the cart on the way in
• Once we reach the church, cat-Mordoe goes to get Tom and Essence, Father Huel rings the bell to gather the townspeople
  • The guards come too and the church fills up. The mayor has hidden
  • Father Huel asks for the doors to be closed and makes a yellow light appear around the church. “We are sealed in a sacred space. I have enacted the security of the church” - anyone who tries to leave without being allowed or Huel dropping the spell will… be hurt or something, not sure if it was clear
  • Albard comes out, calling us “heroes of the town”
  • Jack: “AND I’M ALIVE” - Jack’s parents: wtf?
  • We start to persuade the townsfolk
    • Accept Trovoski back, get the guards to leave
    • One guard refuses to leave and pulls a knife - another guard takes him down
    • The guards are reluctant, they just need jobs. Tetuel suggests “Tom, I heard the woodsman’s guild needs some help” - about 1/3 decide to stay
  • Father Huel stomps his staff - most townsfolk cheer and the light barrier around the church drops
• Jack’s parents head over to ask about Jack
• Essence suggests stationing a watch to protect from the unpaid mercenaries
  • Trovoski suggests taking their weapons and pants - “Have you ever seen someone try to rob someone with no pants on?”
• Essence takes Huel to one of the houses with a blood vat - he’s not sure about it, suggests we go to temples in Crestfall
• Huel + Tom + Essence + Mordoe head to the guildmaster’s hall
  • Huel pays us 1000GP, 5 red gems (garnet) worth 100GP each, 2 300GP diamonds. Mordoe keeps the diamonds and we split the gold and garnets
• In the church there’s a celebratory party
  • Essence asks the guards about Charis’ goons while drinking
    • The sorceror was Arratis, barbarian was Cruz
    • The cleric was Dharin - he has a forked tongue, yellow eyes and a slit nose
    • The halfling rogue was Breville/Brayville Nimblebrand
  • Essence is worried about the blood-drinkers - they now know who we are
    • There’s a big discussion about what we’re doing and where - probably head to the Abbey of Sarenrae, Crestfall, then the Arconsphere
  • Madame Ysir is in - Mordoe goes up to her. She’s drinking a green liquid from a crystal goblet and offers Mordoe some. Mordoe holds it up to keep it from ~13-year-old Jack
    • Ysir hasn’t heard of a shadow prophecy - suggested figuring out what religion it’s about and finding a cleric of that religion
    • Mordoe asks about abyssal - related to demon summoning and worshippers. Try people living in the Dropless Desert?
    • Mordoe chugs the drink and hears Derek’s voice - “Here, are yeh?” “What are you going to do next?” “Boring, let’s have some fun.” “If you get bored and want to have some fun, just say my name 3 times into a flower.”
  • Essence walks up to Madame Ysir - “I think we’ve met before” - she’s not sure so he temporarily drops his Brian disguise. Ysir: “My, my, my. That is an interesting trick you’re using”
    • Only one person she’s ever seen with his eyes
    • Was investigating the transmutation of inorganic material in the Dragonspear mountains, found a stone that gave off a purple light
    • Creatures attacked, a female figure made of light and dark appeared and fought them off, teleporting around. She had the same eyes as Essence
    • Her allies started to fall and a strange wizard opened a portal - 3 people managed to flee through but her rescuer and the wizard didn’t make it
    • This was over 60 years ago - Essence is 20 yet he has the eyes? She doesn’t believe he actually knows how old he is
    • She asks if the name Brandon means anything to him (it doesn’t) - that was the third person other than Freya and her who got through the portal. He was carrying a package, didn’t let them come close and then left them
    • She hasn’t seen him since or found that same crevice - the cave entrances no longer existed when she went back
    • “How is it that you have her eyes? What’s the first thing you remember?” - growing up in Bowhold, unloved, on the streets
    • Essence: “I have never wanted for blood. Through circumstance I have found myself haunted by a past I am unaware of”
    • She asks if he’ll let her take some of his blood. “No risk, no reward” - he consents. She stabs a crystal knife into his hand and it fills with blood. “I will message you with what I find.”
    • Ysir drops the sound bubble spell around her and Essence
• Jack’s parents welcome us back to the inn - Jack’s now back to their normal size/age
• The harbourmaster says he’s expecting a boat from Crestfall, should be going back to Crestfall too - a river trader with a large barge
  • The frost boots will still be another ~2 weeks
  • We head to the Heavy Hand, Regi and Jack buy armour
• At the harbour the boat arrives - the captain is green??? “Helloo there laddies, are you looking for a trip?”
  • 5 days to the abbey, 200GP all in, 50GP without horses. We go for it (with the horses) and load up
  • Amordella hands Jack a note before we set off

SCHEDULED: <2024-04-04 Thu>

• The captain’s name is Captain Longpipe - he’s green because he’s a tortle! The boat is just a smallish barge
• We leave the cart with Jack’s parents - it has feed and 2 scimitars, and we left Switch with them. Regi keeps Bait on the boat
• Jack and Mordoe manage to get the horses on with a little difficulty with Sarge
  • Mordoe tells him he’s conquered the land, it’s time for him to conquer the sea - suggests that he could also become Admiral
• There are no sails, oars, or crew other than the captain, the boat just starts drifting smoothly along.
  • Captain Longpipe says he used to be called Shortpipe, and as a kid he was Nopipe
• Tetuel shows the captain the map - he recognises the islands (and may have memorised the map) - but it would be a detour so we’ll go another time
• We see a dolphin getting eaten by a shark, Regi kills it and we eat some of the dolphin (at the captain’s recommendation)
• We settle down to sleep, and while we snooze Regi pokes Bait with his rapier and sucks some blood
• The next day the coral below is changing colours and tries to lure people to jump in but we resist
• Another day passes - Mordoe notices Bait has a little mark
• A stone pillar erupts in front of us!
  • On top is a guy with blue skin, gills on the side of his face, holding a trident
  • Captain: “Well that’s not normally there”
  • The creature tells us “My river. You are on my water. Pay toll, or die.”
  • How much is the toll? A sacrifice to the river god Blibdoolpoolp - something that means something to us
    • Tetuel’s sacrifice of the metal L and Z is rejected and a jet of water yeets him off the boat - Mordoe tries to grab him but arms are pulling him down
      • He breaks free and uses Step of the Wind to reach Mordoe at the surface
      • Throws in the pewter censer of the goddess of strength - “A memento of our adventures” - a jet of water pushes him gently back to the boat
    • Essence flips a gold coin into the water - “I’ve killed people for less”
    • Jack nocks an arrow and shoots it into the water, also rejected
      • Next sacrifices the note their mum gave them - it reappears but all the ink has disappeared
    • Captain Longpipe drops his pipe over - “back to Captain Nopipe I guess”
    • Mordoe sacrifices the human skin map - “first thing I bought outside of my clan”
    • Regi sacrifices his rations
  • The creature tells us “You have all learned something here. Goodbye.” The rock recedes into the water and he waves as he sinks back in
• Another night passes, next day Jack notices a huge iceberg floating downstream towards us
  • Mordoe uses Control Water to redirect the flow and move the iceberg to the bank - there’s a ship frozen in place inside. Captain Longpipe says “That’s a ghost boat”
  • Regi tries to carve the captain a pipe from a torch - “They can all call me Captain Fatpipe now”
• The next day we see a whirlpool ahead (and chaos ensues)
  • Mordoe tries to cast Control Water again but fails
  • Jack goes slack-faced and stands in place, Tetuel starts beating himself up, Mordoe grabs him. Regi also goes blank
  • Essence asks the captain if he can go around the whirlpool - it’ll be slow
  • Jack snaps out of it, Regi turns towards the captain and draws his rapier - Captain: “You made me my pipe! :(”
  • Essence casts Hold Person on Regi and Jack but they both shake it off. He then casts Darkness on Regi’s clothes, Tetuel fails to grab him in the darkness, Mordoe wild shapes into a bear and goes up to him
  • Tetuel asks Regi to go to the front of the boat (so the captain can see where he’s going), Regi doesn’t and instead runs straight off the side and starts sinking - the darkness following him beneath the water
  • Jack runs off the other side of the boat! Mordoe goes after Regi and Tetuel after Jack. The spell ends for both of them and they get brought back to the boat - Essence stabilises the unconscious Regi
  • They tie Regi to the railing. Tetuel takes the rapier from Regi and puts it in the pile of stuff (but feels the pull of the rapier trying to get him to keep it)
  • We’re not getting anywhere - the captain can only hold the boat against the pull of the whirlpool. Tetuel “ties” the boat to a tree on the shore with a knot that is definitely excellent.
  • Regi wakes up, tied to the side of the boat, hungry for blood
    • Starts biting the rope - all he cares about is getting the sword, breaks free
    • The sword asks him “Who?” - Regi chooses Essence and attacks him. Essence summons a longsword and raises his shield, then Hellish Rebukes Regi, taking him down in flames. He comes back up and Hellish Rebukes Essence.
    • Mordoe shouts “ENOUGH” into their heads but they don’t even register it. Tackles Regi, Regi bites Mordoe’s arm but doesn’t draw blood. Tetuel bonks him on the head, knocking him out again. Mordoe sticks a torch in Regi’s mouth
  • The whirlpool finally dissipates and Tetuel’s knot comes loose from the tree
• We debate what to do with Regi and the sword - this time we leave it with him since he immediately got it anyway
  • As soon as Regi stirs Essence tries to punch him in the head. Regi cuts himself free and runs towards Bait, cuts a leg clean off and starts gluggling blood
    • Jack: “Nooooo!” - shoots Regi as Essence knocks him out, casts Cure Wounds on Bait
• We arrive at the abbey and the captain pushes us off the boat as fast as possible and sails off as soon as he can
  • We’re now sitting on a dock with a tied up Regi, 3-legged Bait, Latoya and Sarge
  • There’s a stone building ahead with an archway. Someone comes out - Mordoe asks her not to touch Regi. She goes to get some help - about 10 women, they grab Regi and a few more help Bait to move
    • They’ll put Regi in a cell
  • They recommend we go clean up and lead us to individual rooms in the gatehouse
    • Tetuel cleans up and changes face to heavy stubble, it works on one side
    • Mordoe investigates his tattoo with Detect Magic - it’s Enchantment magic
    • Regi cuts himself free, sheathes the rapier and Prestidigitations himself clean
      • 2 people enter - “Horse chopper, come with us.”
• We’re led into a courtyard surrounded by a sturdy stone wall with guard towers - in front of us is the main abbey hall
  • We enter through the grand archway, Essence taking a slight pause at the judgemental looking statues outside the door

SCHEDULED: <2024-04-18 Thu>

• The abbey’s main hall is a large room with a circular dais in the centre surrounded by polished marble pillars, with benches surrounding it
  • Light streams in through the stained glass windows, reflecting off the polished floor
  • There’s a large cushioned seat in the centre of the dais with 4 more chairs on each side of it - all occupied
• The figure in the main seat stands up and introduces herself:

  High Radiant Aeliana Sunfire

  Leader of the Order of the Radiant Dawn

  • She has long golden hair in waves down her back, piercing amber eyes, stands tall as if used to command
  • She’s wearing armour and clearly knows how to fight

• The High Radiant introduces the other eight
  • They are the Dawn Wardens, leaders of the Abbey. They each lead a group
  • Warriors:

    Captain Aric Dawnblade

    Dawnbringers, male gnome

    Commander Lyra Sunshield

    Sun Knights, female dragonborn

  • Healers:

    Vigilant Alara Sunblade

    Sunfire Templars, female elf

    Protector Selene Dawncrest

    Radiant Hospitallers, female half-elf

  • Novices:

    Marshal Darius Sunhammer

    Aspirants of Dawn, male human, hammer at his back

    Warden Galen Sunspark

    Dawnseekers, male(?) dwarf

  • Librarians:

    Guardian Elysia Dawnheart

    Sunscribes, female half-orc

    Sentinel Thalor Brightflame

    Radiant Archivists, tiefling

• Aeliana asks why we’re here - Mordoe talks into her head explaining about the forest spirit and his tongue being taken, she relays it to her companions. They’re interested in the black goo
  • Mordoe says he wants his tongue back - she tries not to react when Mordoe says he’s a druid and talks about the wild magic, but she calls him “unenlightened” to the others
    • She asks if Mordoe is a follow of Sarenrae - when he says no she calls Firbolgs a “backwards people” offhandedly
    • The healers think about how to grow back a tongue - it would be difficult. They could attach a different tongue, but that’s usually reserved for Order members
• Tetuel asks about the Dawnbringers
  • Aric Dawnblade stands up - he is the leader
  • He’s angry that Charis’ party escaped
  • Regi shows Lady Lefay’s card - they hadn’t reacted to her name but seem to recognise the card
  • Aric explains that the Dawnbringers are the monastery’s scout corps. They report back for the Sun Knights to bring the fire
  • Tetuel asks about removing the vats of blood left over from the ritual - Lyra says she will send troops
• Mordoe remembers the Shadow Prophecy book and asks if Aeliana recognises it - when she repeats it to the others the half orc raises her eyebrows
  • Mordoe hands her the book - “A great evil this is” - she asks to hold onto it to investigate and Mordoe agrees
• A healer says there may be a way to help Mordoe but Aeliana cuts her off
• Aeliana asks why Regi was tied up but that discussion doesn’t really get anywhere
  • Essence asks how the Blooddrinkers become Blooddrinkers - suspecting Regi of being one. This question arouses their suspicions too
  • What does Regi have to say for himself? “Wasn’t me”
  • Would he be willing to take a test? Just drink some water
    • He downs the crystal vial and they say “He’s not a Blooddrinker, but he does drink blood”
  • Would he mind if they do one other thing? Divination of his body and mind. He allows it
    • They place a holy symbol on his forehead. Light highlights vein-like tendrils across his body, one linking to the blade
    • They ask “How did you get the soul? The blade has a soul. How are you connected to it?” - Regi doesn’t give much of an answer but says at one point it grew in size
    • “You have a soul-blessed weapon. They’re incredibly rare”
    • “Did you speak to the blade?” Regi: “I don’t really remember”. “Be careful if it ever does speak to you. It may offer you a deal.” - they ask him to stay to be observed but he’d prefer to move on with us
    • The blade may be a great boon or it may be a source of incredible evil
  • Would he be willing to donate some of his blood?
    • They take some and heal him - suggest he visits the infirmary
    • If he ever does turn into a malevolent force, they now know where he is at all times and will come and destroy him
  • They’re not keen on the Arconsphere wizards - “mixing themselves up in things they don’t understand”
• They ask us to stay for the night and they will tell us their findings about the book tomorrow. We leave the building.
• In the courtyard a timid young female elf comes up to us, pulls out a leaflet for each of us and whispers “come to the infirmary” in Mordoe’s ear
  • The leaflet is a scroll on Sarenrae
• We’re taken to the guest quarters and told we have access to the grounds but are not to enter the main hall without permission. It’s now roughly mid-afternoon
  • Regi makes himself up the holy water. We interrogate him a bit
• Jack goes to get meat for Janet from the mess hall
• Mordoe and Tetuel go to the infirmary through the graveyard. The doors are open, it’s filled with people with broken limbs and the young elf we saw earlier is there
  • She’s Elara Wispleaf - says if we can get an artifact with a little more “juice” she can join a tongue to Mordoe
    • It’s a relic kept in a secret place - the entrance is in the graveyard below the big statue of Sarenrae. Somehow the statue moves, she’s not sure how but she saw the High Radiant going there once
  • Elara sells Mordoe and Tetuel 2 Greater Healing Potions (150GP) and 4 regular (50GP) healing potions
    • She also has 6 more regular ones, a couple of Greaters and a Superior (for 500GP), along with potions for invisibility, speed, resistance, fly, climbing, braveness, sleep, animal friendliness, underwater breathing, feather fall, walking on water
  • Asks if we’d like to try a potion and hands us each a shot glass - no noticeable effect on Mordoe or Tetuel but she gets very woozy. Offers Mordoe and Tetuel another since they’re larger. It tastes like whiskey. She goes to lie down
• Meanwhile Regi goes for food and heads to the graveyard
• Essence goes to the library for books on the pantheon
  • The first guy he speaks to isn’t very helpful and it turns out he’s the gardener
  • The second guy Herbert is only a little more helpful, is actually stationed there as a punishment (was previously a Dawnbringer)
    • Daily life of a follower of Sarenrae is doing good, helping people, destroying evil and destroying devils
    • Essence asks about the tiefling on the council - they try to win over followers of other gods and that must have been a success
• Mordoe waits around for the healers to ask about his tattoo - “You’ve got a little curse on you” but for more info he’ll have to ask the one who gave him the curse
  • This person is also speaking in Mordoe’s mind! But she’s moving her mouth at the same time so he didn’t notice immediately
  • She says that Elara is a great healer and will one day end up the head of the infirmary
• Jack wanders around and heads to the armoury
  • Staffed by a half-giant, Thorin Nobeard (he shaved it off)
  • They buy a breastplate and Thorin asks if they want to spar, Jack agrees
    • Thorin shows them his move “The Legbreaker” and then takes them to the infirmary - “my treat”. Jack’s given a potion and their leg pops back into shape with some clicks and crunches
• Mordoe, Tetuel and Regi wander the graveyard
  • It’s beautiful, with tombstones of warriors with a little history of each
  • There’s a large (9 or 10 ft) statue of Sarenrae in the centre with arms outstretched
  • Mordoe explains to Regi about the relic and he investigates the statue. The plaque says “follow the light”, and Regi sees a tiny diamond glittering in the centre of Sarenrae’s diadem. Nothing happens when Mordoe pokes it
  • Regi looks around at the sundials in the graveyard and realises they can kind of hinge forward - he points each of them at the statue and it starts to move with a grinding sound - he immediately stops it
  • The others join us in the graveyard. We discuss whether to steal the relic but decide not to to avoid pissing them off
• We head to the training yard. Thorin offers to spar with Tetuel and bet on it, Tetuel offers 2 gold. Thorin asks if anyone would like to see “The Backbreaker”
  • Tetuel rages after getting hit, roundhouse kicks Thorin in the nuts and he goes down. Thorin says “that’s called The Nutcracker” in a small voice and seems approving
• We get led into the mess hall, get told stories of fights and things
  • Essence asks about how to get to Crestfall - via Handles Stand, there’s a bridge near the abbey
• One of the Dawn Wardens walks over to us - the half-orc Elysia Dawnheart
  • “Been reading through that book you gave me. It worries me”
  • She asks what was the name of the leader of the group we stopped? We tell her Charis Ulrich
  • An individual came through a few years ago looking for answers. He’d been involved with beings who inhabit the lower planes of existence, and accessed the archives both here and in the Cathedral of Sarenrae in the Everlight city
    • That’s the/a city of the elves - not sure which direction, it’s surrounded by magic and you have to be invited to be able to find it
  • Charis came looking for info and found a book on Blooddrinkers - but the Dawn Wardens thought he was helping to fight them
  • Tetuel asks about Lord Garrow - not sure but if he’s a Lord she can trace his lineage
  • Elysia says she can’t help but feel the Radiant was a little harsh on us - we’re essentially doing the same work as they try to do in the Abbey even though we’re not members of the Order
    • How much do we know of clerical magic? What we’re asking for Mordoe is effectively a Restoration spell, one of the highest magics the Order can do
    • Each Radiant is given an artifact to enhance healing ability
    • Elysia would vouch for us but we would need to convince the rest of the council. Ask what they want
  • We feel out what the council are like according to the other people around
    • Aric Dawnblade - Good at moving through terrain, keeps people safe
    • Lyra Sunshield - ?
    • Alara Sunblade - Often found in the watchtower with a bow
    • Protector Celine Dawncrest - in the infirmary
    • Martial Darius Sunhammer - Weapons training
    • Warden Galen Sunspark - Found by the gates
    • Guardian Elysia Dawnheart - Looks after the treasures and artifacts, figures out how to destroy shit
    • Thalor Brightflame - history and languages, also figuring out how to destroy shit
    • These people get “reborn” and that’s where their themed names come from. All of them are warriors first, other training second

SCHEDULED: <2024-05-05 Sun>

• We head to Vigilant Alara Sunblade first, sitting 50-60m up in a tall thin watchtower. She’s leaning on her bow, watching outward
  • She says that helping Mordoe will cost the Order something so it should cost us something - a donation to the infirmary of 750GP
  • Regi asks if there’s anything else we could do - she suggests we could barter medicinal components instead (we do have the diamonds and rubies)
• Warden Sunspark is by the gate - not keen on us and doesn’t sound like he’ll be swayed
• Aric Dawnblade - eating in the mess hall, he takes meals after the other people leave
  • He likes Janet! Throws her a bone
  • There’s a local village that requires a constable for an investigation. It’s Tyford - about a day’s walk away
• Selene Dawncrest is in the infirmary reading a book - she offers us tea
  • She already thinks Mordoe should be healed
  • We’d need a tongue of the right size, close in species, should be quite fresh - a recently deceased cadaver would do
  • She has an item that would help us with this - a cool bag she developed
    • Can keep flesh fresh for a day or so
    • One time use, then she’ll need to recharge it
    • Just put the tongue in, close the bag and say the magical activation word
    • She rents it to us for 30GP, will buy herself some tea
    • As we walk off she says into Regi’s head “Oh and the activation word is Freeze”
• We head to bed
• The next day the training yard is already going. Marshal Sunhammer is there
  • He wants to say something but not in front of everyone - agrees to join us for breakfast
  • It’s a delicate matter - a group of trainees say they came across a dark magic practitioner, an old man in black robes who beat up 8 of them
  • He’s not sure he believes it was dark magic, but they came back late looking like shit
  • It should be a cave 2 hours south of here, follow the half-giant trainee’s tracks to get there
  • Find out what happened, discreetly
• We head back to the training yard to talk to the trainees, Marshal Sunhammer points out the group at the back
  • Tetuel tries to blend in with the shortsword training routine, somewhat familiar to him, as he makes his way over
  • The trainees say they came across weird things in a cave - dead animals and stuff. An old man beat them up just for looking at his stuff
  • Sounds like they just couldn’t keep up with an old guy
• Lyra Sunshield is also in the training ground
  • She gets on with Jack - her hometown was also attacked, she retaliated and destroyed the attackers’ homes
  • Asks us to do an assignment
    • There’s a woodcutters’ village 2 hours west of here, there are large creatures attacking them. She needs to bring the Sun Knights’ fire and vengeance
    • Calls us the JackSUNs
    • Follow the river, there’s a big tree where the big creatures are coming from
• We head to the library to see Thalor Brightflame. He seems very uninterested in us
  • Interested in Tetuel’s staff - asks who made it and for him to write Gremble’s name down
  • He doesn’t really have any jobs for us to do - he researches magical artifacts
  • Someone mentions the human skin map and he says they’re actually quite common - it makes good vellum
  • He asks if we have any interesting magical artifacts
    • Jack brings out their axe - the blade is made for killing slavers - he asks them to note down what happens when they do. Tells us there’s a big slave trade towards the desert
    • Bag of cursed things? Not much interesting to him in there any more
    • Amber with figure trapped inside - doesn’t tell us much more
  • He’s very interested in Regi
    • “When did you start drinking blood?” “What?”
    • Regi distracts him with a silver horn we found - Brightflame just tells him “Blow it. Outside” - he seems to think it will be fun but doesn’t elaborate any further. Regi declines.
• We start heading south to find out where the novices went
  • The tracks are quite worn and hard for Jack to follow, when we get to a fork we pick the right-hand path. It heads up into craggy hills where there’s a 20ft tall opening in the shade, with broken bones scattered around
  • Jack loudly calls out “Hello?” - we hear someone in there. Mordoe can hear two people speaing Giant. They’re talking about cooking human.
  • As we try to sneak off, they hear us and one ~18ft tall giant pokes their head out
• Roll initiative
  • Essence covers himself in darkness and attacks the giant in the mouth of the cave (A)
  • Regi casts Haste on Tetuel, who runs into the cave to attack the rear giant (B)
  • Jack moves into the open for a better view and shoots into the cave at giant B
  • The giants surround Tetuel and almost take him down. He stays up thanks to Mordoe’s healing and his Relentless Endurance. He goes into a rage.
  • Giant A runs out of the cave to attack Regi, but he keeps concentrating on Haste
  • Giant B hits Essence in the dark but gets turned into ashes by his Hellish Rebuke
  • Mordoe tries to cast Shillelagh on his club but nothing obvious happens, Jack shoots at giant A again
  • Essence’s sphere of darkness moves out of the cave and out of the darkness come two Eldritch Blasts, Regi starts blasting too
  • Tetuel runs up and stabs the remaining giant to death through the leg
• It’s over.
  • Jack searches the giants’ bodies, Tetuel checks out the body they were going to eat
    • It’s a humanoid, dressed for travelling, recently deceased. From the looks of it they were killed when thrown on the table just as we arrived (we heard the thud)
    • Jack expertly cuts out their tongue and places it in the cool bag, says “Freeze” and closes it
    • The body has 2SP, 20CP and a scroll. Mordoe puts it in the Bag of Cursed Items
  • Regi sidles off to drink blood from the giant without being noticed
• Since this clearly wasn’t an old man with a cave of dead animals, we head back to the fork and take the other path. A way up the path there’s a cave with dead animals hung up
  • Jack calls out “Hello?” - a dragonborn comes out, wearing black robes
  • “There were some youths who thought to bother me, yes”. The animals are just ones they’ve hunted for food
  • She is known as The Hand, and asks why Tetuel is here
    • Says “Yes, I think you’ll do” and invites us in
  • She tells the story of Nathaniel the Farmer, during the Great Cataclysm
    • There was a small farming community where nothing eventful ever happened, until a being of light burst into their barn demanding adoration. It laid waste to those who would not bend the knee
    • Nathaniel charged the creature and was flung away
    • He grabbed a metal pole (what it was made of has been lose to time), charged back in, leapt into the air and drove a hole straight through the creature.
    • There was an enormous pulse of energy, the creature collapsed in on itself
    • Nathaniel came back and placed his hand on the now-glowing stick
    • He and the others gathered around and vowed to [DATA EXPUNGED] (actually I just couldn’t keep up with the note taking - something along the lines of protecting life). They became the Order of Life
  • The staff became known as the Staff of Reckoning. At some point it was shattered into 5 pieces and their locations lost. Without the Staff to unite them, the Order has shattered into pieces and its history has been forgotten
  • She believes one piece has been found by an orc lord known as Marach - Tetuel has heard of the orcs rising up but not Marach in particular
  • The Hand is giving Tetuel a quest to become a “second son” to find the staff and reunite the order
    • The first was another monk from a monastery not far south of here. She saw him alive two weeks ago
      • It’s Oszu! Tetuel’s rival!
• We leave and Tetuel explains a little about Oszu and the Order as we travel
• Jack finds a slightly shorter path to the tree by the river to the west of the Abbey
  • We come across a body stripped of all flesh
  • A voice calls out “Leave! You are not welcome here! Leave!” and keeps repeating itself
  • The voice does answer our questions though - and it appears to be coming from somewhere in the tree
  • It’s a beautiful old oak, probably 400-500 years old, in a clearing in the woods. There are 2 more fleshless corpses against the tree
  • The voice is friends with the creatures. They’ve been attacking the lumberjack village because they were chopping down trees
    • She sees Jack’s axe and tells her friends to attack

SCHEDULED: <2024-06-17 Mon>

• The location is a clearing with a small stream passing a massive tree, tree stumps scattered around
• “Kill, chop, feast on them all!” - roll initiative. Here are the highlights:
  • A whole menagerie of giant animals attacks: wasp, boar, bat, centipede, weasel, toad, vulture, badger, hyena, snake, owl, goat, spider
  • Jack bisects the centipede - the voice from the tree cries out “Aaah! Sidney!”
  • The vulture repeatedly swoops down to attack and then flies high into the air
  • Mordoe, surrounded by creatures, casts Thunderclap and uses Hidden Step to turn invisible. The wasp manages to sting him anyway and the bat can hear where he is. Jack crunches the bat out of the air with their axe (the voice screams “Barryyyy!”)
  • A branch of a tree to the side of the clearing reaches toward Essence and Jack, and vines erupt from the ground around them
  • Tetuel takes the boar down but it gets back up again (a kindred spirit!). Regi stabs it in the butt (the voice yells “Boris!!!”) and casts Healing Word on Tetuel. The badger approaches them and then burrows under the ground
  • The toad hits at Mordoe and takes a bite, grappling Mordoe with its mouth. While inside, Mordoe chugs a greater healing potion and transforms into a war horse.
  • The snake drops from a tree onto Tetuel, trying to bite him. A giant spider drops from another tree and bits Jack
  • Something that looks like a running tree jumps into the clearing and runs at Mordoe, hitting him with a club. The toad bites Mordoe and drops his war horse form
  • Regi Eldritch Blasts the snake, killing it - “Sammyyyyy!”, then takes down the weasel with another - “Wesleyyyy!”, inspires Tetuel
  • The badger pops up next to Regi and attacks him, he Hellish Rebukes. The goat charges at him, taking him down and he comes back up hungry for blood
  • Mordoe casts Healing Word but it fails - his hand starts turning to stone. He casts Thunderclap and explodes the toad - “Toooom!”. The wasp stings Mordoe and he gets knocked out by the poison and paralysed
  • The dryad runs up to Essence and attacks him, Essence responds with 2 slashes of his longsword, taking off a couple of good chunks of wood
  • Jack chugs a potion and kills the hyena - “Harry!”. The vulture swoops down and claws Jack’s head, taking them down
  • Regi is in a blood rage - he chops the goat’s head off and drinks from the stump, then falls back down again. The badger attacks him and somehow misses
  • The owl, spider, wasp and dryad all attack Essence. He attacks the dryad and takes it down - all the creatures scream in pain. He Misty Steps away
  • Tetuel takes down the badger from the top of a stump, punches the owl out of the air. Regi Eldritch Blasts the vulture in the air as it swoops at Tetuel, and then casts Healing Word on Jack
  • Essence destroys the wasp with Eldritch Blast and then explodes the vulture. Tetuel kicks the spider off the stump - now everything is dead
  • Mordoe beats the petrification but is still unconscious
• Should we have a long rest? We may not have time to do the investigation before the tongue decays too much

SCHEDULED: <2024-07-13 Sat>

• After the fight
  • Regi drinks some animal blood and tries the dryad too - it’s like sucking the sap out of a tree. Heals Mordoe to wake him up
  • Tetuel searches around the dryad’s tree and finds smashed potion bottles, but we can’t read the labels
  • Mordoe looks at the dryad and recognises it as one of the woodland folk that he’s heard stories about
  • We discuss what to do next - we need to convince one more person - sleep first, head back and see if we can extend the cooling spell
• We rest - Essence, Tetuel and Mordoe take watches
  • Regi wakes up during the night in a dark place with swirling mist around him
    • He hears a voice “Hello… Hello?” and responds “Sup?”
    • The voice asks who he is, he asks why the voice is talking to him, it doesn’t remember very much
    • Voice asks why it can’t see itself - it’s coming from different directions around Regi
    • Regi asks what he remembers - “Dying. Pain. Great suffering. I remember someone reaching out for help, and I gave them my strength. Was that you?” - Regi doesn’t know
    • He asks the voice’s name - “I don’t remember. I feel I have to go” and it leaves
• It’s now about midnight - let’s head back to the abbey
  • Mordoe grabs the dryad and Jack leads the way back. It takes us about 2.5 hours
  • The gate is closed - will open at dawn. While we wait Essence tries to wind up the guard on the gate
• 4 hours go by - “come on in folks”. We head to the infirmary to find Selene Dawncrest
  • She agrees to re-do the bag’s enchantment and store the tongue - Mordoe pays her another 30GP
  • Takes her 10 minutes to re-cast the enchantment, while Regi chills a stone to keep the tongue cool
• We head to see Lyra Sunshield with the dryad body
  • She’s very skeptical until Regi shows the giant owl feather
  • Sends 2 people to run over and verify that we actually killed the giant animals - Jack gives a description of where it is
• Aric Dawnblade is there too
  • Tetuel tells him it was The Hand and he whistles, impressed. “The most famous fighter of all time, just living in a cave?”
  • He wants Tetuel to ask her if she’ll beat up a bunch of recruits - won’t vouch for us otherwise. Tetuel agrees (not much choice)
• Stables next - Mordoe goes to see Sarge, Jack to La Toya
  • 75GP to buy a hourse, will buy back for 50GP. Regi buys one horse + saddle, Mordoe turns into another horse
• We pull into Tyford - it’s a small village
  • The guard (Roger) says the village is closed under martial law (cue running joke of Regi saying he is called Marshall)
• Roger leads us to another guard who gives us a rundown
  • A local has bled to death from a dagger through the left armpit to the heart
  • Body was found round the back of the inn, on the lip of the well
  • The two guards were spending the night at the inn, heard screaming at dawn, the innkeeper was standing over the body, constable of the town was there with sword drawn, all splattered in blood and yelling at each other
  • 6 people don’t have alibis:
    • Xena (pronounced Zenya): Shopkeeper, kept talking about bad omens
    • Walter: Inkeeper, found standing over body, says he did a stock take and went to bed the night before
    • Mary: Inkeeper’s daughter, says her love is dead, was making eyes at the guards last night
    • Hubert: Priest, has been locked in the church doing a prayer of contemplation for days
    • Cron: Blacksmith, had some drinks at the inn and turned in for the night
    • Hattie: Local constable - had been patrolling outside the town, came in covered in blood. Said she had a bad nosebleed
  • We need to figure out who did it, why and how. The guard hands over a pair of manacles and heads off to rest
• The body is in farming attire - there was a purse but it has been cut. No signs of a struggle
  • Regi checks out the body and pulls out the dagger. The blood is a bit congealed but looks normal. The dagger looks fairly new and well made
    • Mordoe notices blood on the well on the opposite side to the wound
  • Regi asks who the guy ways - local farmhand, Arnie something
• We head into the inn to talk to Walter Jones - halfling with curly ginger hair, shirt+breeches, bow tie and tan skin
  • Regi goes out to the well and pulls out a white apron with blood on it. Calls Mordoe out to hide the apron in the bag of cursed things
  • Essence starts to question Walter, introducing himself as Brian
    • Arnie had been in the inn, had a few drinks and left. Got into a bit of a barney with Cron - Cron was threatening him
    • Arnie beat Cron at arm wrestling a couple of weeks ago at the county fair. Cron stormed off after Arnie taunted him again.
    • Relationship to Arnie: Arnie’s just his customer
    • Arnie lived on a farm nearby, on Lord Michael’s land
  • On the night of Arnie’s murder, Walter did inventory, went to bed, got up at dawn and found Arnie slumped over the well. Assumed he was drunk, turned him over
    • At that point Mary screamed, Hattie came charging round the corner covered in blood (very quickly, he noted)
  • Essence asks if there’s a Mrs Jones - she passed away 5 winters ago
  • Tetuel asks Walter about Mary’s relationship with Arnie. He says Arnie wasn’t suitable for Mary - where would he get the money to sustain her lifestyle, as a farmhand?
• Walter heads upstairs and sends his daughter Mary down
  • She’s a younger halfling wearing a tight fitting corset and lipstick
  • Essence asks her relationship to the victim - “He was my sweetheart. I was going to see the world with him” - immediately starts eyeing up “Brian” and listing her skills
  • Regi asks what she was up to - working in the inn, headed to bed at about midnight
    • The customers in the inn had been Arnie and Cron (who got a bit drunk and stormed off) and the 2 visiting guards
    • “That witch” Xena turned up - sniping at her dad, saying how he should do stuff, otherwise the omens will get us
  • How long has she been courting Arnie? A year (don’t tell her dad it was more than a few months though)
    • Relationship was going well - “of course, he was in love with me”
    • They were going to leave when they got enough money together - Arnie said he’s inherit the land from Lord Michael
    • Never visited him at the farm - it smells
  • Everybody had a joke with Arnie, he was fun
  • Jack asked what happened when Walter found Arnie - she heard Walter berating someone so she headed out and found her dad standing over Arnie’s body. That’s when she screamed
    • Says Hattie turned up extremely quickly - apparently Hattie always blames Arnie when something happens or goes missing or whatever
  • Her dad is very protective - he’s run into them “courting” in the past
• Regi checks the guards’ room - nothing obviously suspicious
• We head over to Hattie in the constable’s hut
  • Female elf with shoulder length blonde hair, has a bow and a shortsword, doesn’t look bruised, no obvious head injury
  • She’s quite standoffish
  • She had been patrolling outside the town, looking out for people smuggling, sneaking around, etc. Came back into town, heard a scream and headed towards it
    • Fell over while she was out and smacked her nose - blood went everywhere and she got a lump on her head. Her nose does look a bit squashed but not broken, no obvious trauma, doesn’t look recent
  • She’s been doing this job for 50 years
  • Jack asks about Arnie
    • She says he’s ended up in the cells more than once, has stolen a few things but it was hard to prove
    • Arnie was a human in his 20s, an orphan
  • Essence asks what she thinks about Arnie’s relationship with Mary - she knows Walter isn’t thrilled. She says “that girl couldn’t elope if she tried”
  • She reckons there are outside influences - Arnie’s illicit dealings went wrong. No outsiders she’d immediately suspect recently
  • Jack asks if Xena is a witch - she runs a store, trades for potions, makes medicine kits, etc - not aware of her doing magic
  • Essence tries throwing a dagger right above her head, she easily swats it out of the air.
    • Essence: “You slipped and fell.” Hattie: “That’s what I said. Thank you for your donation.”
• Mordoe tries to cast Detect Thoughts and instead starts hearing the thoughts of plants and animals - runs off back to the well to see if there are any plants
  • No plants immediately nearby. Goes to a flowerpot and gets nothing useful
  • Startles the guards as he goes to speak to the willow tree by the gate - asks if he’s seen anyone suspicious. He did see Hattie running from the woods to the village covered in blood
  • Runs back to the village and asks the tree at the other end - hasn’t seen anyone except the two guards
  • Talks to the horses - the hired horse says Sarge is batshit crazy. Mordoe “officially” names Sarge “Admiral Captain Sergeant Captain Sergeant Captain Sergeant”
• We’ll leave it there

SCHEDULED: <2024-08-07 Wed>

• Let’s go see Xena
  • Thatched stone building with herbs hung up
  • There’s a little shopkeeper on a high stool - a gnome - with dark brown hair, and a dagger and cudgel strapped to her waist
  • The martial law is “very bad for business, hurry up please”
  • On the night of the murder she says she was working late in the shop
  • Regi asks about her premonitions - she said she knew something bad like this would happen
  • She calls Arnie a rascal, says she doesn’t want to cast aspersions and holds out her hand - Mordoe pays her 5GP
    • She heard Arnie and Mary speaking (she was eavesdropping) - she said he’s not the man she needs, she can get another
    • Then he pushed Mary and she stormed away
  • Xena thinks it’s obviously Mary - “she has a wicked streak”
  • Regi asks about the “ward against death” she was trying to sell
    • It’s a ram’s head with a pattern etched on it, on a necklace
    • Mordoe fails to cast Detect Magic - he’s now about 9ft tall but luckily stepped outside
    • Regi offers her “all the money I have” - she accepts and he hands her 5GP. She grumpily throws the ram’s head at him and tells us to get out
• Let’s try Cron next - he’s a tall half-orc with a scar across his back, currently forging something
  • Regi sells his old rapier
  • Cron’s latest piece is a dagger - he realises it’s missing
    • Regi says it was used to kill Arnie - when did he last see it?
    • Insight: He knew it was missing and started getting panicky when Regi revealed that
    • Other people may have known he was making it on commission for Xena - she paid a couple of GP up front
  • Anyone visited recently? Hattie, Hubert, Arnie
  • Did Cron have a crush on Mary? No
  • What was he doing on the night Arnie died? Shoved Arnie, got annoyed, said some nasty things, staggered home
• Hubert’s church next - it’s got a stone tower with a Sarenrae symbol, 1 tree nearby has recently been cleft in two
  • Hubert Ramsgate is a rotund human with blond floppy hair (think Boris Johnson)
  • Regi asks what he’s been up to - meditating, smoking a pipe
  • Hubert puts his hand on Mordoe’s head and realises Mordoe has no tongue (correct diagnosis, but that’s what we told him to start with)
    • Mordoe goes off and investigates the split tree - there’s a big tall rectangle 1ft wide taken out straight down the centre
  • He goes to get us all a pipe - brings out 4 Gandalf pipes and lights them by clicking his fingers
    • Essence only pretends to smoke, Tetuel coughs and smoke comes out of Regi’s ears - he’s now poisoned
  • What about Arnie? Nice chap, bit involved with the wrong folk, likes to drink, likes Mary a bit too much, her dad’s not a fun, doesn’t know how Arnie beat Cron at arm wrestling
  • Anyone who might not like Arnie? Hattie’s not a fan due to illicit trading and theft, both unproven
  • Thoughts about Mary still living with Walter - she’s been trying to leave with Arnie for some time
  • Why did he visit Cron? For a bucket and spades - spades in case somebody died
    • Essence notices a patch of fresh dirt but fails to investigate it
  • Mordoe walks off to cast Speak With Plants and feels off-balance - he now has giant elephant ears
    • On a second attempt, Mordoe checks out the tree with the cut - it’s screaming
    • 4-5 nights ago there was a crackle of energy, then the tree’s middle was gone
    • Tries another tree (“Hubert”), it says there was a crack of purple light from inside “Old Mike” - he says it was “14 moons” ago
    • The priest didn’t used to smoke - he only started “5-6 moons” ago - is that nights or months?
  • Hubert (the priest) seems uncertain about how recently he started smoking - Regi asks why
    • Arnie got him started (showed him where the plants are growing)
  • Regi looks around the chapel - looks in a shutter around the side and sees the priest’s room with a bed, table and bottles and vials. Nothing obvious
  • Tetuel checks out the hole in the tree - doesn’t obviously line up with anything in the village or the churchyard
• We had back towards the front of town where Mordoe talked to a tree before
  • Tetuel identifies Regi’s poison - can wait it out for an hour or force feed stuff from his herbalism kit and lots of water. We do it and he feels better
  • We go in the direction the tree gestured, Mordoe finds some footprints heading into town and we try to follow them backward into the woods
  • We come across a dead deer with a cut across its throat and an arrow in its heart - clearly a good hunter
    • The arrow is well made, for punching through thick skin
  • Jack sees no human tracks other than the hunter - shot from 100ft away, after cutting the throat they started running towards the town
  • We get the apron out under torchlight and take a look
    • It’s child/halfling sized, clean except for a couple of small smears of blood
  • Regi tries to see if the deer contains smuggled drugs, gets rotting blood and maggots everywhere
• Back to the guards
  • Roger’s not interested in Mary, says she’s nuts
  • Jaron is sleeping, also not interested
• Back to Hattie again, she’s mid-meal
  • Surprised we know about the dead deer and she’s shifty about it. She was poaching! Ran when she heard the screams
  • Who are the traders Arnie hangs with? Not sure
  • She hasn’t seen the dagger
  • Mentions dead animals showing up in the last couple of weeks with no blood
  • She heard about the missing chunk in the tree
• Time to leave it for now…

SCHEDULED: <2024-08-27 Tue>

• We head to the inn to talk to Walter
  • Regi asks to check the bedrooms - Walter’s wardrobe is locked (kinda weird) and his chest of drawers have a set of aprons in them. He says he uses them when keeping the bar tidy, but Mary also uses them in the kitchen
  • Mordoe has a big mug of cider and we have a meal (Essence abstains in case it’s poisoned). Mordoe eats an entire leg of lamb and is stuffed
  • Mary is wearing a frilly apron (bloody one had no frills) and immediately starts flirting with “Brian”. Returns to kitchen
  • Did Arnie ever steal from Walter? Yes - once gave Walter his own cutlery set as a present
  • Did anyone bet on Arnie in the arm wrestling? Only Arnie himself - so he won everything
  • Regi goes up to Walter with the bag containing the bloody apron. Essence: “Have you lost any aprons recently?”
    • Walter is squirming, Regi pulls out the apron and he says “I can explain!”
    • He went out and saw Arnie, assumed he was drunk and tried to turn him over (difficult for a halfling) - realised he was covered in blood, heard footsteps approaching and hurriedly threw the apron in the well
    • He’s telling the truth - he just knew it looked bad and was trying to hide it quickly
  • Anything else he’s hiding? He wasn’t cleaning - he was “seeing a friend”
    • Has been in a relationship with “miss Silver” - Xena - and was spending time at Xena’s that night
  • Regi hands Walter the ram’s skull ward against death - he places it under the bar, trying not to touch it too much
  • Anything we could say for Xena to trust us? “Call her Flopsy” - make sure nobody else can hear
• Let’s talk to Xena - she’s reluctant to let us in until Essence says “I suspect Flopsy would prefer it if we were inside”
  • She confirms Walter was with her on the night of the murder - left in the very early morning, probably a few hours before daybreak
  • Tetuel asks about the dagger - she doesn’t seem fussed that it was used to kill someone, only that it might have been damaged
  • She thinks it was Cron, he was “drunk as a skunk”
  • Animals have been turning up dead with two puncture wounds close together
  • She’s suspicious of Essence - holds out a ward which she says will burn anything demonic
    • Essence touches it and it hurts and strips his Brian illusion
    • She accuses him of being the one who’s been biting stuff in the woods, eventually we calm her down
  • Hattie and Xena have both been independently investigating the murder
  • Xena actually found Arnie outside her shop shortly after Walter left! She tried to put him in the well but he was too heavy
  • A shipment of her strength potions went missing - that’s how Arnie beat Cron at arm wrestling
• Mordoe turns into a big rotund bear and sniffs the scrubbed away blood on Xena’s wall
  • One trail heads towards the well, another trail moves between various buildings, to Cron’s shop
• Cron’s forging another weapon/tool
  • How good friends was he with Arnie really?
    • He says he got drunk, doesn’t mean he’d kill him
  • Doesn’t even remember staggering home, not sure if Arnie was with him at the time
  • We mention Arnie was stabbed in the side of the ribs - Cron says “That’s a pro kill” - he’s an ex-soldier
  • Fairly sure he didn’t leave the smithy unlocked but it has happened before
  • Beardoe sniffs around and finds 3 other people’s trails but not who they were
• Hattie’s next - Regi knocks - “Fuck off, come back tomorrow”
  • She sees the bear with us and immediately shoots it and throws a dagger. Mordoe drops the form.
  • Pulls out drinks for each of us - “dragon whiskey” - Essence and Tetuel choke and splutter
  • She’s still been poaching to pay the bills - Mordoe gives her the antlers from the deer
  • We discuss bloodsuckers
    • We’re trying to find out if Arnie was just collateral damage
    • 3 sheep, a horse and a pig have turned up with drained blood and 2 puncture wounds
      • Sheep first, Hattie set traps but none tripped, another sheep, then cow (which had fought back against something)
      • Then the horse - no sign of a struggle, it was like it was just lowered down
    • Arnie didn’t work at those farms though - just a grain farm
    • The churchyard tree got a hole at a similar time to the blood drinker turning up
    • She points out the locations of the killings on a map - all around the village, 1-3 miles away
  • Not aware of any soldiers other than Cron
• We head back to the inn to look at the body by torchlight
  • There’s blood from his side - clearly not drained of blood. No obvious bite marks
  • Nothing in his pockets
• We have one last chat with Mary - Walter goes to prepare our rooms
  • She said goodnight to Arnie, then worked the rest of the evening
  • After the argument with Cron, Arnie stayed for a bit and then left (so didn’t leave with him)
  • Essence says we have concluded our investigation and know who did it (about to give Mary an out so she can give us more info)
    • Jack interrupts - “You! Oh my god it was you!”
    • Mary starts crying and Walter rushes in to defend her
• Aaaand we’ll leave it there

SCHEDULED: <2024-09-19 Thu>

• Mary: “Why would I kill my own love?” “Why would I leave him behind the inn I work at?”
  • Jack keeps accusuing her - Mary says the guards can confirm she went to bed
• We go ask the guards - she tried to get them to come to bed with her
  • One guard heard some footsteps with a heavy tread going upstairs a few hours before dawn, heard them again a bit later
  • Regi checks the stairs for footprints - finds several sets in the wax
  • Jack looks too - 3 sets that aren’t in the party, 2 gnomish size, 1 human sized - heavy workman’s shoes - they match Arnie’s
  • Walter: “Won’t be silly, Arnie’s not allowed upstairs” - he looks at Mary, she goes red. Walter realises he doesn’t want to hear and goes to the kitchen
  • Mary admits Arnie came up to pick up something and say goodbye, just after the others went to sleep
    • Collecting his hat - thought it was left on a chair with Cron, maybe Cron took it for him?
• Mary wrote in her diary before going to bed - Essence asks to see it, but we can’t read it - it’s in code. Common characters but ciphered
  • HA ovwlslzz. Wyvihisf zjhylk Q+Y vmm. Ullk opt av ibgg vmm pm P’t lcly av lzjhwl.
  • The text specs don’t decode it, and Mary refuses to
  • Essence cast Friends and tries to persuade her - then drops his Brian disguise and uses Thaumaturgy to make his eyes glow
    • It works and she explains the cipher
      • AT hopeless. Probably scared J+R off. Need him to buzz off if I’m ever to escape.
  • Mary was so scared by Essence’s appearance that she ran to the kitchen. We persuade Walter to let her back, saying it was just an illusion
  • She says she knew Arnie was not a way out of there, thinks Arnie scared the guards away from her, will do whatever to escape
• We decide to take Arnie’s body to Hubert to be buried
  • Tetuel and Mordoe rig up a stretcher and carry Arnie’s body to the church
  • Essence knocks on the door - no response. No lights in the windows
  • Regi looks in the shutter he opened before - the bed is empty
  • Essence Misty Steps through the opened shutter, looks around for a bit, then Regi picks the front door lock and lets the rest of us in
  • Regi looks around Hubert’s room
    • Red marks on the floor near the table, a goblet with a dent on its side
    • Loose stone by the fireplace, Regi asks Tetuel to help remove it. There’s a “clink” noise and a bolt shoots Regi in the shoulder
    • Inside are 3 vials - 1 blue, 2 red - and a small purse. Regi pockets the gold inside
  • Regi checks the desk, breaks his lockpick in the drawer, removes the old pick and picks the lock
    • Gas floods into the room and Mordoe and Jack are knocked out. Regi and Tetuel are blind in the gas, with Essence’s help we drag them out
    • Tetuel slaps Jack awake. Jack tries pouring water on Mordoe but it doesn’t work, so Tetuel slaps him awake too.
• A shadow appears at the door - an individual in a hunter’s uniform - Hubert
  • “Well, well, well.” - Essence: “No, that’s where we found Arnie”
  • Why was Hubert out? “I had a place to be. Why are you in?” - he doesn’t believe us
  • He’s definitely acting differently now, more “with it”
  • He offers us some tea, clicks his fingers and the mist dissipates. He notices the stone was moved too. When Teutel asks about the vials he says Regi should try the blue one
  • Mordoe and Jack drink the tea, Tetuel hesitates until they look ok, Essence and Regi abstain
  • Hubert says he really is a member of the clergy of Sarenrae
  • The hole in the tree is “not entirely unrelated” to his night-time activities
  • Why is he here? Serendipity. He ended up here by accident
  • He is being extremely evasive with every answer
  • He agrees to actually answer some questions to get rid of us quicker
    • Says he goes for walks and thinks at night
    • His teeth aren’t pointy
    • Says he doesn’t know who has been draining blood from animals
    • Jack’s axe says he’s not a slaver
    • Doesn’t seem to know how long he’s been here
  • Jack asks who he thinks killed Arnie
    • He accidentally reveals he thinks the body was by Xena’s shop - we question how he knew that - roll initiative

SCHEDULED: <2024-10-10 Thu>

• Hubert stands up and starts to leave - Tetuel fails to grab him so instead punches him (wtf?) and says “what are you doing?”
  • Hubert responds “I think it’s time I left”
  • He casts a blinding light that does some damage too and starts walking away - Tetuel hits him. He opens the church door and runs out into the night
  • We all follow and get a few hits in, he keeps on running and casts Hold Person on Essence, Tetuel and Jack. Regi and Mordoe follow him into the graveyard
  • Hubert takes down Mordoe with Inflict Wounds but Regi brings him back up
  • Mordoe and Regi take Hubert down with Ice Knife and Dissonant Whispers
• We all run towards Hubert, can tell he’s dying. Regi stabilises him - we want to find out wtf was going on
  • We disassemble the stretcher and tie Hubert up with the rope
  • Essence searches, finds he’s wearing scale mail, has a war hammer, a crossbow with 20 bolts, a small bag with a censer and incense, a tinderbox, a hunting trap, an amulet and a nice ring
• Essence grabs the amulet and the ring. He has a sudden desire to put the ring on and does so
  • He hears a voice - “Hello, you’re different.” Essence introduces himself
  • It’s Hubert’s voice - he says he is a priest of Sarenrae and has been stuck in the ring for a few weeks
  • He went outside when he saw the flash of light and that’s when he got taken
    • A person reached out to him - strange, not unlike Essence
  • He says Essence’s mind seems “dirty”
  • Essence tells Hubert he’s probably dead
  • Hubert says the “other guy” told him that he found Hubert’s body and was trying to repair it
    • Essence is suspecting something was inhabiting Hubert’s body
  • Essence says to the party “Guys, I’ve got Hubert stuck in my head”
    • He doesn’t hear Mordoe’s reply at first, just noise, can choose to listen or not
  • Essence realises Hubert is stuck in the ring - what if he takes it off? Hubert would prefer if he doesn’t
    • Says he can hear but not see from the ring
    • What did he call the other friend? Xavier
• Hubert/Xavier’s body is now stripped down to underwear and wrapped in a blanket. It’s about midnight. What are we doing?
  • Can Hubert bless Arnie’s body through Essence? Essence puts his hand on the body, Hubert asks if he can take control, Essence recedes into the background
    • Hubert then refuses to give Essence’s body back, tries to take the ring off
    • Mordoe offers to take the ring, but Hubert says he’ll keep it for now
    • Tetuel can tell “Essence” is acting weird, but he does have another voice in his head so that makes sense
    • We bury Arnie’s body - now about 1am
• We head to Hattie’s to put Xavier/Hubert’s body in the jail. Mordoe tries to explain as Hattie gets surprised by the presence of a tiefling
  • Can we borrow a cell? Yes - Mordoe puts Xavier in, and stays along with Essence
  • Everybody else heads back to the inn
  • We question Essence not being Brian - Hubert says he forgot, but really he doesn’t know how to. Reluctantly he gives Essence back control
    • Essence immediately tries to remove the ring, but can’t
    • We come up with a hand signal that H can’t see (bird flapping with both hands), Essence turns back into Brian and stays in the jail
  • Mordoe tires Essence up for the night just in case and puts Xavier under the bed
    • In the night Xavier wakes up and says somebody stole his body and he’s been stuck in a gem - asks why he’s in so much pain
    • Doesn’t know why he did anything - says Hubert stole his mind
    • Mordoe shakes Essence awake and he shows the hand signal. Mordoe says Xavier is awake, but Xavier is scared of the tiefling
    • Mordoe takes Essence and Xavier to the inn - Xavier says he’s a priest (not of Sarenrae) from far away to “the south”. He’s been on a bit of a pilgrimage
    • Xavier starts mumbling a spell, Mordoe can’t stop him in time, Essence goes straight to Eldritch Blast and knocks him right out
  • Mordoe carries Xavier back to the inn, Hubert asks in Essence’s head what happened

SCHEDULED: <2024-11-21 Thu>

• In the pub now - Regi checks Xavier’s restraints
  • Walter and Mary come downstairs, ask if we have evidence to accuse their priest
  • Mordoe wakes up the guards and brings one (Jaren) back. Essence explains what’s been happening
  • Walter confirms Hubert has been the priest for ages
  • Jaren goes through the timeline with us - we still don’t have a motive or know what actually happened
• We question Hubert in Essence’s head
  • Jaren: “What’s Sarenrae’s main purpose” - he has to think about it for a while - “Mercy, redemption and healing” - yep
  • “Who does Sarenrae hate?” - Hubert is stumped, Mordoe telepathically gives the answer from the leaflet - Asmodeus
  • “What does Alina Sunfire look like?” - Hubert doesn’t like her, she told him he should do his job and drink less
• Jaren heals up Xavier so he can wake up and removes the gag
  • Jaren calls him Hubert and accuses him of murder
  • Xavier says “How could I not be me?” - at Jaren’s questioning, he gets the first 2 questions right but gives a bad description of Alina Sunfire
  • Mordoe says “Hey Xavier” into his mind to see if he turns around, but he doesn’t visibly respond
  • Essence talks to Hubert in his head - Hubert says he can cast Zone of Truth - Essence asks Xavier-Hubert if he can
  • We agree to rest for the remainder of the night and figure it out over breakfast. Essence, Tetuel and Mordoe take watches
• Xavier says he will cast Zone of Truth but he needs his hands free
  • We all ready weapons, Mordoe prepares to remove his hand tie
  • Xavier says he’s cast Zone of Truth - there was definitely some real magic
  • Tetuel tests it - “My name is potato. My name is not potato. I think we’ve proven that wasn’t Zone of Truth.”
    • Xavier: “Shit” - Essence Eldritch Blasts, Jack shoots him, Jaren puts his hand on Xavier and silences him
  • In Essence’s head, Hubert is protesting about damage to his body
  • Xavier says he’s posessing Hubert’s body because somebody stole his
  • Essence: “Why did you kill Arnie?” Xavier: “That was unfortunate. Let me start at the beginning”
    • “My name ix Xavier Xaith and I am/was a high level priest in my order. I was trapped inside that ring and forced to endure aeons of pain and misery at the hands of the creature wielding it. A portal opened between planes, the creature tried to go through but was too large and its hand was chopped off. Hubert picked up the ring. I said I would make Hubert rich, powerful and wealthy and he agreed to let me take over.”
    • Arnie came to rob Hubert, Xavier stumbled in on him, panicked and stabbed him to death. Used the dagger from his room, but then put a different dagger from Cron’s to throw off the trail and aim it at Cron.
  • Mordoe asks what order he was originally part of - the Order of Mephistopheles
    • Regi thinks back - he’s one of the princes of hell, known for trickery and cunning
  • We look to Jaren - we now have a confession. He suggests removing the curse and taking the ring off. Xavier volunteers to Remove Curse, Essence doesn’t trust him
  • Xavier agrees to be taken to the Abbey of Sarenrae, we gag him again and get going
  • Mordoe leaves a gold piece for Walter, we leave
• The guards have horses, Mordoe turns into a horse, Essence gets on, we have 3 other horses. Jaren leads the way
  • After running behind the horse for a while we let Xavier get on Mordoe’s back too
• We get to the abbey before nightfall and head back to Aric Dawnblade - he’s playing with Janet
  • He wants to get the council together to hear this, and summons them. Xavier is looking rough - Mordoe gives him a bit of food
  • They cast Truth on Tetuel as he tries to explain what happened - it’s difficult to believe. Xavier interjects - he didn’t mean to kill Arnie
  • They see a simple solution - offer Xavier the punishment of death or return to the ring. He chooses to return to the ring.
  • We place the ring on Hubert/Xavier’s body and Hubert is now back and very relieved!
  • Sentinel Brightflame takes the ring eagerly
  • Essence asks to call for a vote to heal Mordoe (even though we’re not sure we convinced enough people!)
    • Guardian Dawnheart votes Yes
    • Sentinel Brightflame votes Yes (thanks to the ring)
    • Warden Sunspark votes No (doesn’t like us)
    • Protector Dawncrest votes Yes
    • Vigilant Sunblade votes No (no donation to the infirmary)
    • Commander Sunshield votes Yes
    • Captain Dawnblade votes Yes (Jack has suggested they’ll introduce him to Claude the tiger)
    • Marshal Sunhammer votes Yes
    • That’s a majority! Mordoe’s tongue’s getting reattached!
  • Selene Dawncrest asks for 30GP for recharging the cold box again while we were away, Mordoe pays
• Aeliana Sunfire the High Radiant leads us to the Sarenrae statue in the graveyard and opens up the statue - stairs lead down into the darkness
  • Mordoe goes off for a second and picks a flower off the floor, whispering “Derek” 3 times into it
    • Asks him if he thinks anything bad will happen - probably not? - and asks if he wants to tag along - A little butterfly sits on his shoulder and he turns into a brooch. Mordoe returns to the others
  • The High Radiant unlocks various doors down to a final altar, and walks out putting something in her pocket and with a golden amulet in her hands. Asks Mordoe if he’s ready
  • All the Sarenrae council start chanting, in a tight circle all around. Derek remarks “Ooh this is very spooky!”. Jack crumples to the ground.
  • The priestess looks at Mordoe with glowing eyes and tells him to state his request
    • He heard a voice in his head - it’s Sarenrae herself - “What will you give in return for the tongue back?”
      • “So you wish to help others? Would you give up your telepathy?” - Mordoe considers
      • Would he give up knowledge of his family? No - he needs to go back and find them
      • Would he become an acolyte of Sarenrae? No, he already has a goddess
    • What if he pledged to only help people instead of harming them? Sarenrae: “So, give up offensive magic?” He’s not keen on that either
    • Sarenrae - “How about a deal? Acquire a specific crown. Do you know why my enemy is? Let’s just say he’s a dick. I will give you one year to acquire the crown of the prince Asmodeus. One year. Bring it back here.”
    • Sarenrae is really not sure about the tongue since it’s not a Firbolg tongue - “We’ll give it a try. How do you feel about lisps?”
      • The tongue starts off way too long - she tries again and Mordoe is left with a bit of a lisp
    • Mordoe is sent back into his body and falls unconscious
  • Next Essence hears a voice in his head - “There’s something strange about you. You’re missing something…”
    • “WHAT???” - psychic energy knocks him out
  • Tetuel asks if she knows about the Staff of Reckoning - he gets knocked out too
  • Regi - “Ah, a gambler. You have a darkness growing inside you”
    • “Why are you in my head?” “Why are you in my temple?”
    • Can ask for a boon - but nothing is free
    • Regi asks what people usually ask for - help with a task, information, etc. Regi asks about his sword - “Ah, that is quite the weapon!”
      • He feels a great pain in his head, gets back up and sees eyes staring at him
      • She tells him it is the ancient blade of a warrior who was tortured
      • “Be aware of it - it will change you. That blade is an artefact of the ancients”
• The High Radiant says “Now!” and sees all of us on the floor except Regi
  • We come to - it’s now dawn somehow
  • Mordoe has his tongue (if a slightly sillier voice) - they tell him to try casting and he successfully casts Produce Flame!
  • She asks “What about the other thing?” - “Which thing?”
  • “So long friends, you should leave now” - they basically push us out of the graveyard
• We head to the library - the “book knight” greets us and starts hitting stuff on his “quest”
  • Sentinel Brightflame comes out and freezes the dumb book knight, hands an Asmodeus book to Mordoe and goes back into his office
  • Mordoe knocks on Brightflame’s office and he begrudgingly lets him in
    • Mordoe asks how he would get Asmodeus’ crown - apparently it’s literally part of Asmodeus’ skull
    • Sentinel Brightflame does not recomment Hell
    • He thinks the lisp will probably go away with time
  • Mordoe’s about to leave but asks if Xavier knows anything about this - since he was a priest of Mephistopheles
    • Brightflame puts the ring on Mordoe and Mordoe asks if Xavier knows anything about Asmodeus or his crown
      • All the princes have a crown, they are the Crown Princes of Hell
      • “What’s hell like?” - what’s in it for him? He’ll tell if Mordoe can get him out of there
      • Mordoe talks in Tetuel’s head to discuss - then asks if Brightflame will lend us the ring. He says there’s no way he can get it back when we all die in hell
  • We convince Mordoe to leave the ring

SCHEDULED: <2024-12-18 Wed>

• What should we do next?
• Mordoe looks at the Asmodeus book Sentinel Brightflame handed him
  • It’s called A treaties (sic) on Asmodeus
  • He’s the ruler of the 9th and most powerful layer of hell
  • Portrayed as charming and charismatic
  • “Beware, only with divine light guiding you should you read further” - the remaining pages are blank
• How can we get divine light?
  • We head back to Brightflame’s office - Regi knocks and persuades him to open the door, shows him we need divine light to read the book
  • He’s being extremely unhelpful and snarky as he wants to continue examining the ring with Xavier in it
  • He says divine light could be part of a weapon, a spell or something someone could cast
  • Sentinel Brightflame casts Light on Regi’s face to get us to piss off but no more of the book is readable. He pushes us out magically
• Let’s head toward Crestfall (via Handles Stand)
  • Horses: Latoya, Geoffrey (horse Regi bought), Mordoe, Sarge
  • Jack leads the way and picks up the trail toward Handles Stand - should take around 4 days
• Jack hears a group of armed men ahead coming towards us - the land around is hard to hide a horse in, just brushland with occasional trees
  • The men have their weapons drawn and are looking for something
  • Jack ties up their horse and climbs a tree. Before anyone can stop them they loose two arrows at the guy with a spear at the front of the group. He falls to the ground dead
  • Everyone in the group ahead ducks for cover. Essence calls out “Surrender, bandits!” - they respond “We’re not bandits, you just killed Kevin you murderers!”
  • A stone from a sling just misses Essence, who Eldritch Blasts another and they all drop their weapons.
  • They say they were looking for missing children taken by giant bugs. Regi apologises and casts Healing Word on the leader Kevin just before he dies
  • Jack offers Kevin a healing potion but he refuses
  • One of the younger people behind Kevin says it was supposed to be a joke - the kids are just hiding from the dad Kevin. He’s very angry at the joke putting people in danger (and nearly getting him killed)
  • Regi offers Kevin 10sp as an apology, he asks us to never go near his village
  • Jack re-offers the healing potion, Kevin says he’ll save it for later (doesn’t really trust us)
  • They all move on, off into the woodland
• We continue on - the path is easy to follow and starts winding uphill. We come across a campsite
  • Jack goes hunting and finds a stag, chops the neck for Regi to drink. The meat will make 2-3 days worth of food
  • We rest overnight - Jack first watch, Tetuel second, Essence third
• We set off again in the morning. 5 hours in we see a group of hooded women ahead
  • Jack can see they’re carrying baskets of eggs
  • We let them approach this time. One offers us 12 eggs for 12CP
  • As Jack gets their coin purse out, one snatches for it - Essence instantly Eldritch Blasts and her head explodes
  • The others run away of course
  • We take 12 of the remaining unsmashed eggs and leave 20 copper pieces
  • We move the body and dropped baskets off the trail
• That evening we make camp again - watches are Jack first, then Essence, then Tetuel
  • Jack notices a less used parallel path - we stay on the main road though
• We make a third camp - it’s getting colder now that we’re higher up
  • Jack takes first watch - there’s a golden eye looking at them as they drift off - they snap awake and it’s gone. It’s completely silent all around. They look around and see no tracks. Eventually normal night sounds return
  • Tetuel’s watch next, then Essence
  • At dawn Essence sees Tetuel sleeping with his eyes open and pokes him. Tetuel swings at him but misses, then goes back to sleep
• 4th day - now going downhill. There’s a V-shaped valley ahead with the path in the centre.
  • We can see some sort of animal up on one side - orange colouring with black stripes, 2ft long
  • Jack approaches - it’s a tiger cup whimpering in a bear trap. Mordoe joins and Jack casts Speak with Animals
  • Jack: “Janet we have to help the cub” - Janet: “What cub?”
  • 3 bolts fly at Jack and the first flies straight through the tiger cub - it was an illusion
  • Tetuel jumps off Sarge, runs up the side of the valley and sees someone with yellow skin, pointy ears and a long brown beard - another martial artist
  • Jack directs Janet at the partially hidden person who shot them
  • Essence follows Tetuel up the side and Eldritch Blasts people
  • Someone on the other side of the valley (F) shoots a lightning bolt at Jack and Mordoe - Mordoe gets hit hard
  • A small figure (B) runs up to Mordoe and spins a staff around - he responds with a level 4 Thunder Wave
  • Regi Eldritch Blasts the small figure and the lightning bolt caster - the caster is wearing robes and has a cat wandering around his neck
  • A big guy (A) with a big axe runs up from further down the valley towards Jack
  • Behind the big guy, someone fires a guiding bolt at Jack but misses. The crossbow person shoots at Jack again
  • Tetuel rages (“Fucking valley bandits!”) and continues to attack the other monk
  • Jack focuses on the big guy with an axe heading towards them, while Janet attacks the crossbow guy on the valley side
  • The caster on the other side of the valley (F) aims a lightning bolt at Essence, Tetuel and the monk. Tetuel dodges it and the monk is vaporised! F calls out “Shit, sorry!”
  • Mordoe casts Call Lightning and Essence fires an Eldritch Blast at F
  • The big guy with an axe (A) runs up to Jack, recklessly rages and attacks twice, taking Jack down
  • The crossbowman (H) hits Janet with a dagger, taking her down
  • Essence’s eyes go black, his hands get surrounded by a purple energy, and the caster F gets surrounded by darkness as he casts Phantasmal Killer. F retaliates with another lightning bolt and then gets hit by the phantasmal killer
  • Mordoe chugs a healing potion and calls lightning on the big guy A and the small person with a staff. Regi runs toward them and Eldritch Blasts both A and B, pushing them back and killing the staff wielder. He casts Healing Word on Jack, bringing them back
  • The axe user cuts Mordoe down and then rounds on Regi. Jack gets up and heals themself
  • Essence curses the big axe guy and Eldritch Blasts him. He gets back up after the first but the second explodes his skull. His shadow remains and gets dragged toward Essence, who inhales it and heals. The shadow gets back up as a spectre
  • The wizard F is still frightened by the phantasmal killer but destroys the spectre with lightning, then chugs a potion. The phantasmal killer fades
  • Tetuel knocks the crossbowman down the side of the valley and runs toward the wizard. Jack shoots the wizard through the eye before he gets there
  • Jack shoots the distant caster down the valley (D) who had been casting Guiding Bolts. Essence takes him down with two well placed Eldritch Blasts
• It’s over - everyone is down
  • Jack stabilises Janet, Tetuel stabilises Mordoe

SCHEDULED: <2025-02-06 Thu>

• Surrounded by bodies - let’s search them
  • Tetuel searches the crossbowman: He’s an elf with not much stuff - but he does have a hooked dagger and hand crossbow
  • Jack searches the barbarian: A male orc with a great axe and a smallish black stone which doesn’t reflect light
  • Tetuel searches the monk - they’re a gith with no weapons and nothing else either (except their robes)
  • Regi searches the wizard - he’s an old human with has a small scroll case , a useful dagger and 200GP
    • The cat that was around his neck has gone
    • Regi tries opening the scroll case and it explodes with ice. He’s knocked to the floor all frosty, and after a moment gets back up
    • He tries again and gets knocked unconscious, and somehow gets back up again
  • Essence searches the cleric - a human with a black mark on their face - a laurel wreath with a dagger through/across it
    • They have a mace, chainmail shirt in good condition and a scroll. He hands each to Mordoe
    • Essence checks the scroll to see waht it might be - it’s just text. Mordoe reads it with the Text Specs
      • Regi’s bounty is now 200GP up front to take us all out! 75GP for Regi alive or 50 dead, 10GP each for his companions
      • There’s quite an accurate description of us too
  • Jack searches the halfling woman
    • She has a well made quarterstaff with nice detailing - Jack hands it to Tetuel
    • There’s also a coinpurse with 26GP, 10SP, 14CP. Jack hands out 5GP each and keeps the remainder
• There’s some discussion about the 200GP bounty (Regi doesn’t say anything) - we decide they must have spent it or put it somewhere for safekeeping
  • Regi throws the scroll case at Essence, Mordoe puts it in the bag of cursed things
• Let’s just get out of here?
  • Mordoe picks up the stone that was projecting the tiger cub and puts it in the bag of cursed things
  • We take a short rest just over the crest of the hill off to the side. Regi plays a relaxing beat on a drum that he apparently has had this entire time
• After a bit of walking we can see Handle’s Stand
  • A fortress across a confluence of rivers like a gatehouse for the river and road. There’s a small town around it, surrounded by walls
• We talk to the portcullis guard
  • He says Crestfall is closed by order of the king - there’s a disease going around
  • We could continue along the towpath on the river
  • He thinks doctors could be allowed into the city - talk to the captain of the guard
  • The inns in the town are likely to be busy as everyone’s waiting outside for the city to open
• We head in to Handles Stand - people are shutting down for the evening
• Time to look for an inn
  • We try a relatively nice looking one (the Beggar and Pipe) with a male elf outside eyeing us as we approach
  • It’s relatively busy inside - there’s a female halfling called Prosa inside busily serving drinks
  • She wants a bribe to give us a room - has a storeroom free and can fit 5 cots in there
    • Payment upfront - she’s had to hunt people down with “Sylvia” - a curved dagger
    • Can figure out something to do with the horses
    • We all pay for the evening’s food and the room
• We ask the innkeeper about the Crestfall plague
  • It’s been closed for a couple of weeks, the city’s starting to run out of food
  • What’s the sickness like? She holds out her hand for coins
    • She hasn’t heard anything, but at one point about 3 weeks ago she heard screaming up the road
    • The captain might know more
  • There are about 50,000 people in Crestfall
  • There’s a place here where Arconsphere wizards hang out, another inn? Didn’t write down where
  • Essence asks where she’s from - is the inn a family thing? She’s from Cobblestone - village south of Crestfall
    • Gives Tetuel a look when he mentions we were recommended the Cobblestones Inn (by “Samuel” back in Longhorn)
  • Tetuel asks if she knows someone from Cobblestone called Samuel (the name of the “security expert” that was trapped with us in Longhorn)
    • She says she’s “heard the name” Samuel - but be careful who we mention it to - he’s not in good standing with the law
    • It’s more of a title - a sign that you’re owed a favour
    • Absolutely do not try to use it more than once - someone will find out and there will be consequences
    • Asking about it now doesn’t count as using it, but she could do us the favour
    • Tetuel asks if she could get us into the city, through the gate or otherwise. She says it would be difficult but probably yes. We don’t decide on it now though.
• We go out to look for somewhere to buy a bedroll to replace Tetuel’s - a general store or something
  • Accidentally wander into in a red light district and someone gives us directions after attempting to solicit Essence
  • The general store owner is closing up but offers Tetuel a bright pink bedroll
  • Regi wants bottles for blood - Essence buys 8 bottles of terrible wine that would “strip the paint off a cart”
    • Regi buys jars instead but they’re tiny
• We go back to the inn
  • Essence offers the owner one of the crappy wines for a silver - she immediately starts offering patrons shots of wine for a gold
  • We go to sleep in the store room in the cots
  • Regi dreams of his sword - “So, friend. How are things going?”
    • He asks about drinking blood - “Can we do this… less often?”
    • Drinking the blood is helping the sword remember more. It believes that’s its purpose.
    • It felt him fall to the ground and used some of its essence to revive him - so it can’t do that very often
    • It asks what he’s doing as it doesn’t have a perception of the outside
    • The blade says “use me to drink” - use the sword to cut people’s throats and drink using the blood channels
    • Feels like it should be called Sir Noir
    • Regi asks if it has a favourite kidn of blood. It’s not sure - will have to try some!
    • “Vanquishing evil is what I believe I am here for. Let us vanquish it together, friend”
• Essence wakes up to 2GP by his head but no bottles (so think how much cash the innkeeper made)
  • The innkeeper tells us she needs the room back - breakfast is on her after the selling last night. Big thick slices of bacon
• What are our priorities?
  • Butcher for blood for Regi, captain of the guard, wizard bar
• Butcher - a rapid-fire meat market called “Chop Shop”
  • There’s a large half orc lady chopping meat with great knife skills
  • A human runs up to us - they’ll be killing a goat in a minute so will have some blood for Regi - he buys the blood and a jar
  • Jack gets some meat for Janet
• Regi asks for somewhere to buy a tree tap (to stab into someone to drunk blood from them, Essence and Tetuel’s dumb suggestion)
  • An old lady called Deirdre has 2 for 5CP each
  • She also offers him something “cool” for 1SP - turns out to be a damp fan
  • We wonder what kind of stuff she might have - Regi asks about a bag of holding. Deirdre says she does have one!
    • Regi wants to test it, she says it’s 500GP
    • Jack tries it out - once their hand is in Deirdre warns them not to touch the outside - as it sometimes “cuts off”. They extremely carefully remove their hand
  • She offers us soap - Tetuel buys a bar. It’s rose scented
  • Essence buys two bottles of “sparkling wine” which turns out to be normal wine she’s blown bubbles into

SCHEDULED: <2025-02-20 Thu>

• We’re still at Deirdre’s Delightful Depot
  • Jack asks if Deirdre has anything that could help them talk to Janet - she pulls out a horn
  • Deirdre offers food for Janet for 1GP - throws a snake at Janet
    • Mordoe and Jack both cast Speak with Animals and talk to the snake - it wants to return home to the forest
    • Jack names the snake Ophiuchus
  • Jack asks if Deirdre has any mice “No no, no vermin here” - Jack clarifies it’s for Janet and magically she does
• Let’s go to the wizard bar that Prosa at the inn told us about - we ask around about where it is
  • The sign outside is a jester and scroll (funnily enough it’s called the Jester and Scroll)
  • There’s a large Orcish individual with a black uniform with a black uniform and hat standing outside
    • He asks if we have an invitation - we could get one from a wizard
    • Regi snaps his fingers and uses Prestidigitation to summon a trinket that looks like an idea - “Marshall Matters [sic], Wizard” with a picture of him
    • The guard accepts and asks us for an admin fee and surcharge for the cat - 10GP for a room, 5GP each for guests, 3GP for the tiger
    • Regi hands over 38GP and the guard allows us in
• Inside there are various servers and wizards around - an elf called Iris shows Regi to a table and leaves the rest of us in a corner
  • Regi’s room is upstairs - room 4. Knock 3 times and say Wingardium Leviosa to enter
  • Iris reads Regi the menu - he orders a salad. She asks what he’d like to drink - cow blood
  • Regi looks around - there are two elves magically playing chess without touching the board, a dwarf painting somehting, a hooded woman in the corner watching everyone, and a halfing stroking a dagger which changes colour every time she strokes it
  • A plate floats toward Regi with an incredible salad, cutlery appears on either side
  • One of the chess players says “Hah! That’s game, Frederick.”
  • Regi picks up the glass (the waitress watching him curiously) and pours it over the salad. The hooded woman in the corner smiles and raises her glass to him
• The hooded woman gets up and asks Regi if she can join him
  • She asks where he’s from - he says he can’t remember, he’s just passing through. She responds “One doesn’t simply pass through the Jester and Scroll”
  • Mordoe gets out Simon the Snake belt, activates it, and Simon and Ophiuchus make friends
  • The woman asks what Regi is here for - he says information. She’s interested in trading information
  • Regi recognises she’s a dark elf
  • Regi carefully tries to explain the wizards extracting the black goo from the forest spirit, without saying we killed them. She thinks he was the one extracting the essence at first, and is intrigued
    • “Sounds like a simple transference spell”
    • “Could distill it and make […], […], or even elixirs” - missed what she said
    • She offers to buy Mordoe - when he refuses she hands him a small coin, presumably to contact her. It has a perfect picture of her on it
  • Regi mentions something is “happening” in the city - she wants something more in exchange for the information. He offers her the silver horn that we never blew
    • “In short, madness”. It seems a spell has gone somewhat awry. Original cause unclear, but it has caused a mania or madness in the city
    • The Arconsphere have collaborated to put a time capsule spell over the entire city
    • If you hit the boundary of the spell you will be slowed down to infinitessimal slowness
    • The Arconsphere are trying to find the cause of the mania, send a team in to stop it and then release the time capsule spell
    • Someone “very talented” could get through it. Would have to be one of the Arc wizards from the Arconsphere, be able to disable the spell, or have an immensely powerful magical artifact that can block magic. Or be a god.
  • She says “maybe you could do a task for me. How strong are your… sensibilities?”
    • She’s looking for an elven/Sylvan city, Erialond. He’s never heard of it
    • Its last known location (it’s difficult to find) is out west, “under the Dragonspear mountains”
    • In a year he will be here or she will summon him here - he agrees to it
  • Regi asks her name - she wants his surname in return - it’s Elys
  • Elys stands up, nods and walks upstairs
  • Regi finishes his meal and asks what the bill is so far - another 38GP. He pays. Room is available when he’d like
• We head out, back to Deirdre’s Delightful Depot
  • Does Deirdre have a centaur heart? She pulls out a bagpipe. Regi takes it anyway
  • She recommends Errol 6 doors down for identifying items
• We head over to Errol’s Enchantery
  • Errol is a gnome with glasses on, hair slightly fried. He launches into a long story about his brother
  • Making a permanent talking collar for Janet would be 1500GP, making one that works for 10 minutes a day would be 15GP in half a year or 200GP in a couple of days
  • 30GP for one that resizes itself, ready in a year - Jack pays (even though we probably won’t be anywhere near here in a year)
  • 3000GP for an arrow of slaying - decide at compile time what type of thing it slays
  • Regi asks about the scroll case - 300GP to remove the protective spell. How much would Errol offer? 100GP - Regi says nah
  • The tiger cub stone is a minor illusion stone. Errol says “chocolate” into it and a bar of chocolate appears
  • Jack offers the black stone from the barbarian that ambushed us before Handles Stand - but doesn’t want to pay for it to be identified
• We debate whether to try to sort out Crestfall and decide it’s probably too big a job with the information and skills we have. Let’s carry on towards the Arconsphere instead
• We look for “the twins” - blacksmiths at the Hammer and Tongs
  • There’s a huge forge inside with two mountain firbolgs from the Dragonsphere mountains
    • They haven’t heard of the city Erialond
  • They’re happy to see Mordoe, don’t see many firbolgs. They “send the word out” about Mordoe’s family by asking the fire
  • We sell some of the weapons and armour we’ve built up

SCHEDULED: <2025-03-13 Thu>

• Let’s see what info we can find today, then move on towards the Arconsphere
• We’ll try the gatehouse first
  • It’s 100ft tall, with crenellations all round. Very reinforced and militaristic
  • The are two guards outside by the door - Regi goes up to them and one speaks to us
    • They say the gatehouse is closed - he doesn’t want to let us in
    • Regi asks to see the captain of the guard - they ask his name and affiliation, suspicious of a wizard with no affiliation
    • Regi namedrops the stasis field - seems like these guards don’t know about it. The other guard is a half-orc called Bronk
    • The guard lets us in the side door and tells us to go up the stairs and open ONLY the red door - they get Jack to tie Janet outside
    • It’s dark inside for some reason - hard to see which door is red but luckily Essence can see
  • Regi knocks on the door and a voice inside answers “Enter.”
    • As we do we’re met by a massive ballista aimed right at us
    • The captain is an older elven gentleman - handlebar moustache, white hair. For an elf to look old he must be very old!
    • He asks our names and professions
    • Jack explains we’re here to get information from him about the problem. He doesn’t exactly agree with the original problem being a plague of madness - says that’s “close”
    • Doesn’t think we can directly help - it’s down to the Arconsphere wizards. There are lots of people demanding to be let in
    • Essence asks the captain to explain what happened in Crestfall chronologically
      • A few people went crazy, the number suddenly spiked, he got a message from the Arconsphere about the outbreak and they quarantined the city
      • A couple of guards did get sent over - they’re frozen in the middle of their first step off the bridge outside his window. The bridge extends about 100ft away from the gatehouse toward the city, the river raging rapids below it
    • His point of contact at the Arconsphere is just “the Secretary” - no signature on their messages, just a seal
      • Once they sent a real seal as a “seal of approval” - he shot it with the ballista. It was a big mess.
    • The captain would like to send a message with us to the Arconsphere
      • He writes a message quickly, seals it and hands it to Jack - gives them 5GP to carry the message
  • He gives us instructions to get out - take the brown door, close it behind us then go back through it and go up the stairs to exit
    • Regi misinterprets the instructions (arguing with Tetuel) and we end up with a brick wall on the other side of the door after opening it
    • There’s a pull cord - Regi pulls it and we wait
  • There’s a scraping noise somewhere behind the wall and then a brick opens up. A big face appears behind it and greets us in a very calm voice
    • He wants 20GP each to let us out - Regi hands it over
    • Follow him exactly or we’ll be stuck here forever
    • He’s an ogre dragging a long piece of metal - says he’s called Derek. As we walk he explains a few things
    • This is the prison ~500ft below the gatehouse
    • We have to run to keep up as Derek takes a wiggly path between the columns holding up the ceiling
    • He’s very large - “Mordoe is… quite small.”
    • We get to a staircase and he tells us to go up the stairs, don’t touch the door or it’ll kill you. Look mildly confused nad it’ll open
  • We follow Derek’s instructions, get out and the wall closes behind us
    • We’re right near where the guards let us in and they look at us “pff… idiots”
• It’s approaching dusk now - Regi has a room at the Jester and Scroll, the rest of us could head back to the Beggar and Pipe
  • Regi looks for some shady people - makes a thieves cant signal - offers 1GP, asks about tunnel systems into the city
    • “You wanna talk to the Upright Man” - where is that?
    • “Pay him your dues”
    • “Talk to the money lender, by the Beggar and Pipe” - Eelidos(?)
  • Regi comes back to the rest of us and lets us know what he found out
• We head back to the Beggar and Pipe and see a recessed shopfront next door - “The Golden Shake”
  • It has bars across the windows and looks like a pawn shop
  • Regi goes in and Essence follows but the rest of us stay outside. There are 2 half giant guards watching inside
  • There’s a small bell on the counter - Regi rings it and a door opens. Someone shuffles out in a tweed suit and says hello. He looks a bit like Mr Burns.
  • Regi says he’s looking to talk to Eelidos, looking for a way to cross the gorge. “Sorry, you have the wrong place - this is a money lender’s”
    • He tries again in Thieves Cant - “Are you not the Upright Man?” and this works - Eelidos gets the guards to lock the door
    • The price per person for a couple of days time would be… “May I ask what your business is?” Essence: “No.”
    • 500GP each for transportation across the river - on your own once across
      • Obviously we can’t even afford to get one person across
    • Essence: “That’s substantial. Considering you’re the only way into Crestfall…” - dude replies “Yes.”
    • We could do a job for him - would pay 1000GP, plus a cut of the profits
      • Breaking in somewhere, stealing some items, leaving a message
    • Essence politely declines - we won’t be using his services to enter Crestfall
    • “You will of course remember that I know who you are now. If any of my activities are questioned…”
      • Shake on it? Offers his solid gold hand to Regi
    • “Smithers.” - one half giant opens the door
• Back to the Beggar and Pipe - Prosa lets us through to the storeroom and brings food. Once we’re in private we discuss
  • We know there’s a way into the city and probably out, may be able to use it to escape if the Arconsphere lets us in
• Regi goes back to the Jester and Scroll, the doorman lets him in, he has a luxurious bath - wakes up refreshed and inspired
  • He sees an empty plate in the room with a sign “Speak and it will appear”. He’s a bit concerned that this will cost extra money he doesn’t have
    • “Scrambled eggs.” - they appear and look delicious, more appear out of the plate as he eats.
  • Regi leaves and heads towards the Beggar and Pipe
• Meanwhile the rest of us sleep and have a bacon sandwich
  • Tetuel asks Prosa about the laurel wreath tattoo that one bandit had
    • She says it’s the Greycoats’ symbol
    • “One of you has crossed the Thieves Guild” - we all look at Regi
• We head out and find the path towards the Crestfallen Garrison
  • The path starts to peter out and we encounter some locals surrounded by goats looking towards the river
  • Tetuel says hello, the 3(?) women are all wearing antlers on their heads and moving in sync
  • Jack reaches out to pet a goat. Turns into a goat.
  • Was there something in the river that they were looking at? One answers calmly “We were looking at the water”
  • Can we have Jack back? “They made their choice.”
  • They walk towards us - “Come. Come join us.”
  • Essence casts Darkness in the middle of all of us (why?) - roll initiative

SCHEDULED: <2025-03-27 Thu>

• We’re standing on the clifftops above the river, with goats running at us - Essence casts Darkness around three of the women
  • They’re druids and start casting Barkskin and Shillelagh
  • Mordoe Calls Lightning as the goats mob him and Tetuel
  • Tetuel is headbutted by a goat and transforms into one too, feels an overwhelming urge to protect the druids. He stills his mind to end the charm and starts headbutting back
  • One druid creates vines around Regi, tangling his feet
  • Essence casts Dispel Magic on goat-Jack, but they’re still standing in the darkness. “Alright. If one is presented with goats, one makes curry”
  • Tetuel’s goat form is dissipated with a headbutt and then restored with another headbutt
  • Jack comes to in the darkness - gets out their axe, steps out of the darkness and hits druid D in front of them. Regi Eldritch blasts the same druid - her head explodes and her body is thrown back into the darkness, narrowly missing Jack. The darkness clears up a little later
  • Druid C gets hit by Mordoe’s lightning and throws a ball of fire at Jack
  • Essence is knocked down by goats - “It is I who became the curry”. He Misty Steps out to the other side of a low hedge and Eldritch Blasts druid C, disintegrating her face under the skull
  • Regi Eldritch Blasts the last druid B, and Mordoe takes her down with an exploding Ice Knife
  • The goats are still around and two charge at Regi. Jack bisects one with their axe and it turns back into the woman it was originally mid-slice. She falls down dead
  • The goats mob Tetuel and continue to beat him up. Mordoe hits one with a club carefully and it turns back into an unconscious young girl
  • Essence Eldritch Blasts a goat attacking Regi and it turns back into a man and slumps over dead
  • Jack carefully knocks out the goat next to them with the flat of their axe and it turns back into a little boy, hits another by Tetuel and it turns into a man with an elaborately patterned jacket
  • Regi gets up, draws his sword and stabs the body in front of him through the neck, puts his lips to the handle and starts to drink the blood
  • Mordoe knocks down another but this man remains conscious - it’s a priest with long robes and a chain around his neck. Mordoe tells him to sit down and close his eyes until this is over (to avoid seeing Regi drinking blood)
  • Jack takes down the remaining two goats - a young man and woman
• The priest is the only conscious person
  • Mordoe and Tetuel patch up the unconscious people as well as they can. Total 3 dead, 5 alive
  • The priest says he tried to heal some travelling people’s goats on the outskirts of the desert - remembers the goat events as dreams
    • His name is Bertram, he’s a travelling priest of Lyria (Llira?), goddess of joy, from Bowhold
    • He notices Regi drinking blood and asks if the person needs help. Casts Cure Wounds on himself and goes round healing the survivors
    • Mordoe frantically tells Regi to stop right now
  • The young girl and boy are trying to wake up their dead parents, inconsolable
  • The guy with a fancy cloak is a gleeman - a travelling actor. Asks if we’d like to see a show
    • He’s heading toward the Arconsphere from the deep south, 100 leagues away. Place in the Dinargian Empire called Bokteherakha (?)
    • Went past Kalkugrim on the way up - speaks giant, knows of Mordoe’s settlement but didn’t have news
  • Bertram says he’ll take everyone back to Handles Stand
  • Regi searches the druids’ bodies - one has a goat leather belt. Straight into the bag of cursed things
    • We split the 8PP, 41GP, 25SP, 95CP that he finds

SCHEDULED: <2025-04-10 Thu>

• We have a rest by the river and continue on a bit after midday
• We set up camp at dusk
  • In the night Mordoe hears Derek - “Well that was an interesting day. What’s up with your sucky-sucky friend?”
    • Asks if Mordoe wants to try drinking blood from a beating heart. “Around the summer festival we all do” in the Unseen (Unseelie?) Court - they try to keep drinking without the heart stopping beating. The record is 35 minutes.
  • Derek turns back into a brooch
• Jack leads us onward. There’s a jingling noise in the distance, coming from an elderly gentleman shuffling toward us, a 3ft tall gnome with hair spiking out of his ears
  • He tells us the garrison is just military stuff, no town
  • He’s a salesman. What’s he selling?
    • Vial that will catch fire if you throw it (like at the pirates’ cave dock), 50GP
    • Elven goddess statue, 100GP - Regi recognises it as “the Moonbow” - daughter of the night skies
      • Can stop someone passing to the other side from a distance (essentially cast Spare the Dying)
    • A really long telescoping axe - longer than the bag he’s pulling it out of. Telescopes from 6ft to 18ft
  • Nothing we want - he continues wandering
• The river is wider but still fast flowing here
• Mordoe chats into Tetuel’s head about the Unseen Court - “something funny might be about to happen”
  • He tells everyone else too telepathically, trying not to tip off Derek
• It’s getting dark again so we set up camp again
• The next day we run into a few forks in the path and go a bit away from the cliff into the woods. We hear a deep booming voice - “Excuse me? Could you do me a favour?”
  • He’s fallen in a hole - we look for the hole and find a 30ft wide hole in the ground - 30-40ft deep but his head is very high up, maybe only 15ft down
  • Looks like he’s a giant, wearing clothes made of bear skins. Mordoe speaks Giant to him, he’s Alfred from the clan of hill giants nearby
  • Mordoe climbs down a rope but slips into the hole. Casts Spider Climb on Alfred and the giant picks him up and walks out
  • There’s now an 18ft tall giant in front of us
  • The hole had been covered - looks like a trap. Who could the clan have pissed off? After a discussion and a warning to keep an eye out for traps he wanders off - “Kind of fancy a cow”
  • We grab the ropes again and carry on ourselves
• Settling down again for the night - Essence has eaten something dodgy and has food poisoning. Jack sees a raccoon go up to Mordoe and pee on him, calls Janet on it. Tetuel gets snacky and eats 3 days of rations
• We all wake up - Essence is still poisoned but not fatigued. Mordoe casts Lesser Restoration on him, making him instantly feel much better
• We continue on and hear a young girl’s voice laughing ahead - sounds creepy, we all draw our weapons and Mordoe goes to have a look
  • It’s coming from off the path 100-200ft away. We turn around and the path is gone. Jack is lost, our footprints are vanishing - there’s magic going on.
  • There’s still a way forward to we continue with weapons drawn
  • After a while Mordoe calls out “Hello, we’re here”
    • “Hello, hello. I see you’re stuck indeed. To get back home these words you’ll have to heed”
  • The voice gives us a riddle. Regi answers correctly and his mouth seals shut
  • She asks for a riddle from us. Tetuel gives one and she gets it right
  • Mordoe gets the next riddle wrong and takes psychic damage, Jack gets it right and their mouth seals up
  • She wants another riddle and gets it wrong and then right
  • Tetuel answers the next one correctly
  • “You win. What would you like?” Essence: “Who are you?”
    • A tree parts and a figure steps out “I am Elenid. This is my circle” - pretty sure she’s a dryad
    • She’s not keen on blooddrinkers
    • She seems to take a liking to Jack’s bow - “If you ever find out who made it let me know (so I can kill them)”
    • She is pissed off at wizards - “They aren’t allowed here” - when we say we killed the ones harming a forest spirit she thanks us and starts making food appear - berries and mushrooms
  • She asks what Mordoe’s trees are called, then asks “Do you want to meet one of my trees?”
    • Claps her hands, a face appears out of the bark “My name is Albert, I’m a wizard!” - she makes his face merge back into the tree and says he’ll get used to being a tree eventually
• We’re only a day away from the garrison but Elenid can make it quicker for us
  • The trees part around us and she warns us not to stray from the path or we may meet her less nice sisters
  • Very quickly (magically) we reach the edge of the woods
• The garrison is a large stone tower ahead - a couple of hours away. Very militaristic, lots of ballistae
  • We head towards it - a guard directs us to an inn set in the outer wall
• The inn is a long stone single store building built along the wall
  • Plenty of soldiers inside
  • Barman is an old male halfling - asks where we’re heading
  • 3SP each for rooms, food is only meal deals (but hearty sounding ones). He hands room numbers to us as we eat
  • There’s a female dwarven priest with auburn hair sitting alone, her hand on her dagger. We leave her to it
  • There’s a dwarvish aristocrat with a glass of wine - wouldn’t say why she’s been waiting here a few days, asked him to send interesting people her way
    • We head over - she’s looking for a group to provide a modest service. What she’s seeking a is a little bit odd
    • She says she’s tracking a group of slightly strange folk
    • She’s come from afar - has an entourage guarding her carriage outside. Sounds like Common isn’t her first language
    • Slides a gold piece across the table to pay for answers.
    • She’s looking for 4 people, strangely robed, animal masks - we realise at this point she’s talking about the druids from a few days ago
    • They stole an artefact from her (the goat belt?)
    • She wants it back before they cause too much trouble
  • Essence confesses that we have done more than just encounter the folk. She offers 500GP for the item plus 100GP for expedience. Essence makes the deal and Mordoe reaches into the bag and pulls out the goat belt. She is very thankful and puts it on immediately, sighing in relief
  • She asks what rooms we’re in - calls over the barkeeper and puts better rooms for us on her tab
  • The barman leads us to the other end and says there’s one suite left - 6 luxurious beds, 6 bathrubs ready, a cliff view over the river
  • We divvy up the 600GP - 120 each. Time to take a bath
  • We head to bed - Essence, Jack and Mordoe will take watches in case the rich lady has us killed or something
  • Tetuel looks around his bed and the room around it for traps - as far as he can tell it’s just very clean

SCHEDULED: <2025-04-30 Wed>

Kene joined us for this session to try out D&D, playing as Mordoe since Dee was away

• Essence takes first watch, then Tetuel
• Regi’s dream
  • Regi feels himself moving between trees, silently stalking, hears a clatter to his left. It’s his friend, having tripped over a tree root. There’s a mist swirling ahead.
  • He must find the creature. Mist swirls around his face at the treeline, and the trees behind start to fade. He feels a sense of impatience from his blade
  • “Eh, screw it. In we go” - he’s engulfed in whiteness. The ground isn’t quite ground any more. He sees the faces of enemies in the mist
  • “Yes. I remember this. We were hunting for him, to defeat him. Why can’t I remember?” - it’s the sword. It asks Regi to help him remember
  • And then Tetuel wakes him up for his watch
• On his watch, Regi notices 6" tall figures darting around the room. They’re very small with humanoid features - reminds him of stories of helpful fairies. They’ve been darting around cleaning
• We’ve had an excellent night’s rest - we all have inspiration
  • Slices of beef get brought in for breakfast
• Outside a young woman is yelling at some guards moving carts around. The guards walk off, leaving her alone
  • Reluctantly we go over and she introduces herself as “Hattie the Marvelous”
  • She wants us to move her carts - she can get us to the Arconsphere in a day instead of 5 days with some magic and a “little bit” of danger
    • Could she elaborate on the danger? She jumps between points by going through different overlapping dimensions - reducing the total distance
  • Why’s she travelling to the Arconsphere? She’s a magister (or a magistrate?)
  • She asks our fee - she’ll pay us for 5 days even though it should only take 1 - Jack says 100GP a day. Considers it and agrees
• We hook up Sarge, La Toya and Geoffrey to Hattie’s 3 carts while she prepares a spell
  • She advises us to act like we’re supposed to be there and look for a white door - the way out. She closes herself into her cart
• The first white door appears in front of us in the wall of the building. Tetuel opens it and we head through
  • The smell of sulphur hits and there’s a sudden bright light
  • We exit onto the side of a mountain, with rolling hills around. We’re not on a road and there’s no white door in sight
  • The door fades behind us - the horses are ethereal looking
  • We pick a direction that takes us between hills, moving quickly as if we’re in a hurry and don’t want to stop and chat
  • Essence starts to get exhausted by the heat and gets on a cart
• Jack sees a path to the left and we follow it. We spot the white door 500ft ahead
  • By the road a giant says “Stop. Toll. Pay the toll.” He’s a big guy with a flaming sword. “You pay the toll to use my road.”
    • The toll is a life of servitude, which seems a bit steep
    • Mordoe asks “And if we don’t pay this toll?” - “You die.”
  • A snake brings up a contract on fire - “My name is Sam. I am an idiot and my friends have left me here in a lifetime of servitude as a snake”
• Doesn’t look like we have an easy way out here. Mordoe casts Call Lightning on the giant
  • The horses have disappeared
  • Regi casts Haste on Tetuel, Jack shoots the fire giant. Mordoe brings down lightning again
  • The giant pulls out his flaming sword and hacks at Tetuel, taking him down. He springs up again, prompting a response of “Well done little man.”
  • The snake bites and slashes at Mordoe and the lightning cloud eventually dissipates
  • Essence and Regi rain down Eldritch Blasts on the giant. Regi and Mordoe heal up Tetuel
  • The giant runs up to Essence and hits him, gets Hellish Rebuked but it doesn’t bother him at all
  • Essence and Tetuel hit the giant from opposite sides, then the fire giant takes Essence down
  • Mordoe casts Thunder Wave on the snake and turns invisible (Hidden Step) to avoid it hitting back. The snake goes for Regi instead
  • Tetuel takes down the giant and runs up to the snake. It looks like it’s starting to turn back into Sam so he holds back
    • Regi ignores that and kills the snake by chopping it in half even though he was about to be free. The snake turns back into a man
• We stabilise Essence and put him on a cart (they’ve conveniently reappeared)
  • Regi finds some money on Sam, while the fire giant has his fire sword in perfect condition (great sword) and 79GP - we split it up, 17GP each
• The white door is in front of us and we head toward it

SCHEDULED: <2025-05-22 Thu>

• We’re at the door, with Essence unconscious. Regi heals him and he wakes back up
  • We decide to take a rest, then head through, Tetuel first, Beardoe next - now a grizzly bear
  • We’re dumped into water, completely submerged
  • Bubbles appear around the horses’ heads
  • Regi looks around - can’t see the surface but he spots the doorway about 600ft away. We’re just above a glowing seabed and the door behind us has now gone
  • Essence tries to breath from the bubble around one horse’s head but bounces off
  • We all start to dash towards the door - can probably just make it in time! Beardoe and Tetuel pull ahead
• At this point we notice we’re not alone
  • There are 2 large seahorses, 2 humanoid creatures with claws, and a shark all heading for us
  • Each warrior creature is holding the reins of a seahorse. They charge forward at Regi
  • Jack shoots twice at the crab man, Regi stabs it and swims away. The crab man chases him, Tetuel turns back to attack it
  • Mordoe tries to telepathically say “we’re just passing through” but the crab guy doesn’t really care. Beardoe swims back toward the others
  • Essence throws his summoned pact trident at one seahorse and gets nipped by a claw guy
  • Jack shoots crab guy 2 in both eyes, killing him. The seahorses ram Tetuel and the shark approaches Regi
  • Regi uses Booming Blade to hit the shark, it’s sheathed in “booming energy”. Flees and the shark kills him - he comes back to life and starts swimming toward Essence in a blood rage
  • Tetuel kills the second seahorse, Mordoe crushes the shark’s head in his jaws and we all start swimming for the door again
• We just reach the door in time - Essence Misty Steps just as his air runs out and is dragged through
• Through the door, we all abruptly stop at the vertical drop right in front of us
• Regi feels a hunger and launches himself at Jack. Ends up with Beardoe laying on him and a mouthful of fluff. Essence Eldritch Blasts him in the face and then stabilises him
• We appear to be on a narrow ledge around a spire of rock high above the clouds
  • Tetuel follows the ledge around our spire - no door here. Doesn’t look like there’s another ledge above us
  • There’s another spire with a similar ledge on it about 120ft away. The ledge goes around it, out of sight
  • Can we fly across? Essence can cast Fly. Mordoe can turn into something that can fly. Can either of them get the rest of us and the carts across?
  • Mordoe paws over the edge of the ledge, and at one point hits something solid and invisible
    • Tetuel drops a ball bearing on it - it seems solid. The bearing falls off the edge. He pats the edges of the ledge - seems like it’s about 5 feet wide, and smoothly curves down at the edges
  • Jack ties a rope around Tetuel, and the other end around Mordoe. Tetuel crawls out on the invisible path. It doesn’t go straight for the other spire - it starts off toward it then curves rightward.
  • Tetuel ties a dagger to another rope and throws it in front of him. Seems like the path does pick up again after a gap of 10-15 feet.
    • Essence casts Fly on Beardoe - he flies around and finds the other broken end of the path. Tetuel jumps towards him, loses his footing and swings down on the rope, hitting the hard face of the broken end of the path with his own hard face. He climbs up to meet Mordoe and follows the remainder of the path. It curves back toward the other spire in a wiggly fashion.
  • Safely(ish) on the other side, Tetuel unties from Mordoe and follows the ledge around, finds the doorway. Mordoe returns to the others
  • Jack casts Cure Wounds on Regi so he can try to help figure it out
  • We discuss how to get the rest of the people and carts across. The carts weigh a good couple of thousand pounds
    • Eventually we decide on taking a long rest, Mordoe enlarging himself and Essence casting Fly on him
  • Tetuel takes first watch - plays the flute badly across the gap. Jack next, then Regi as the crescent moon starts to come out
  • We execute the plan
    • Mordoe casts Darkvision on himself to see properly
    • Jack casts Speak with Animals and explains that they’re going to be lifted. Sarge can be Wing Commander after this - he excitedly trots toward the edge
    • Essence casts Fly on Mordoe and he casts Enlarge on himself, then picks up Sarge
    • Mordoe carries all the horses across, followed by the carts and then the people. Jack fires a victory arrow into the air as they’re carried across
• We all made it! We hitch up the horses to the carts and approach the door

SCHEDULED: <2025-06-19 Thu>

• We step through the portal into freezing cold air and absolute darkness
  • Mordoe attempts to light a torch, but it immediately goes out
  • Essence is the only one who can see
• Essence can see reflections all around us in every direction. There seems to be a sort of pattern to the reflections
  • He Eldritch Blasts one - there’s some smoke and a crack appears in the mirror, and it seals over again
  • He tries walking backwards - it does what you’d expect from a mirror
  • Regi touches the ground - it’s cold. Tries to dig the ground with his sword and it’s like trying to cut through iron - it even makes some sparks
  • Essence realises the darkness doesn’t seem magical, it’s just dark
  • Jack asks their reflection how to get out - it just reflects normally
  • Essence directs Regi to a mirror - he pokes it and feels a hard surface. Strikes it and skates off
  • Mordoe makes the minor illusion stone make an illusion of a candle and suddenly we can all see! Regi makes another illusory candle
  • Now we can see we’re in an octagon of mirrors
  • Regi tries the fire giant’s greatsword (which had previously been on fire magically) - nothing happens when he wields it
  • Tetuel throws a ball bearing at the ceiling above a mirror - it shatters. Hits the gap between mirrors with a pickaxe and that shatters too
  • Jack attacks a wall we haven’t hit already and their blade passes straight through! This mirror is an illusion
• We step through the illusory mirror into a larger area
  • Regi checks on Hattie - she’s sitting still and concentrating, not shivering
  • Jack finds a bell and immediately rings it (wtf). The mirrored walls all vibrate except for one, and Jack steps through that one
• Through the next mirror is a long hallway with 7-8ft tall ice pillars lined up into the distance
  • Are there people in there? Can’t really see. Essence chips off a piece and sees a hat inside
• We hear a voice - “Who disturbs my slumber? Come forth and explain thyself” - it’s coming from down the corridor in the darkness. Mordoe immediately turns himself into a bear
  • There’s a larged spiked chair ahead and sitting in it is a giant with glacial eyes
  • “What is your quest” - Regi answers that we’re going to the Arconsphere and he wonders why we’re going through his palace to get there
  • “Your body is already adapting” - “The ice will flow through your veins”
  • Beardoe projects into the giant’s head - he’s taken aback that the bear speaks - “Do you dance too?”
    • Mordoe dances while Regi plays drums - the giant finds it most amusing
  • We ask which plane we’re on - “Ice.” - we should have guessed that one - “Cold dark. I call it the eternal wait”
  • He’s a Second Baron Lord - his name is Frostfist
  • Would we like to see why he’s called that? Regi declines but Beardoe volunteers. Gets punched and goes flying, dropping his bear form - “You punched me so hard I turned back into a man! I’m cured!”
  • Essence sneakily casts Invisibility on himself and wanders off to look for the door
  • Frostfist offers to extend our lives - “does it involve us freezing?”
  • Stalling for time, Tetuel asks who the frozen people in the pillars are - “That’s my court of course.” Jack asks who’s his favourite - a fellow with a pointy hat looking for “Essence” - said it was “wizards business” - Frostfist turned him into a cleaner
  • Mordoe shows Frostfist the tiny gnomish alphabet book (as its tiny size is a novelty to Frostfist) - he shows how easily it crumples and tosses it away
  • Essence finds the doorway on the back of Frostfist’s throne, about 15ft up. He whispers in Mordoe’s ear that he found the door, and Mordoe relays it to everyone else
• Jack tells Frostfist they have an idea for a trick Janet can do - but we need a stand. Frostfist asks size requirements and Jack draws out a plan in the snow. It’s a ramp behind Frostfist’s throne so Janet can jump over him. We agree to put on a show for him
  • Regi plays the flute, Tetuel does one of his old staff routines as a “warrior dance”, Mordoe pulls out a snake belt. Frostfist enjoys it and the ice ramp is now formed
  • Jack takes a cart around to the back of the throne, drives up the ramp and opens the door
  • Regi casts Hypnotic Pattern around Frostfist’s head, wakes up the rest of us and we all head around the back
  • After a minute he comes to - “This isn’t a flying tiger, this is a bunch of flashing lights!”
  • Frostfist tries to hit us as we go through and manages to whack the last cart as it passes through the door, smashing a rear wheel
• We emerge onto a dirt road with trees all round and a large spire a mile or two ahead
  • Essence knocks on Hattie’s cart - “are we there yet?”
  • She stumbles out sweating - gonna go for a sleep. Tells us to fix the cart and get us there
  • Jack finds some wood to replace the spokes, Tetuel and Essence weave rope around the wheel between the spokes to reinforce it, Mordoe and Regi support the corner of the cart while we do it
  • We just about make it to the tower, it takes about an hour
• The Arconsphere stands in front of us - a towering spire of crystalline stone surrounded by a vortex of crackling arcane energy
  • There’s a large moat, and at the bridge two well-dressed guards stop us. They ask who we’re here to see and then ask for Hattie’s ID - she pops her head out and says “Oi! Harold! Let us through will ya? I need a wee!” - he hurries us through
  • In the courtyard inside there are carts and stables. We’re guided into a bay by an attendant, and Mordoe pays for our horses to stay one night
• The attendant directs us towards an inn - the Archer’s Chalice. It looks very nice
  • The barkeeper Della directs us to a table. Jack and Essence hear the prices and walk out immediately
  • Regi asks for fresh blood - after some thinking she says she could do lamb or send a boy to the butcher’s to get some. He decides to go himself instead and leaves
  • Mordoe and Tetuel order some of the expensive but very nice sounding food
  • Della asks why we’re here, and Mordoe asks what a magister even is. Della gets herself a glass of wine and proceeds to talk about something completely different
    • She tells us she was once a wealthy aristocrat - someone did “magical testing” on her land and the crater which remains is still infested with magical oddities
    • She draws a map of where her land is and gives the name of the local village. She’ll make it worth our while
    • As proof that we’ve cleared the house of hazards, she’d like us to bring something back. In the bedroom on the top floor is a music box and inside that is a necklace with a red ruby
• Meanwhile Regi, Essence and Jack look for the butcher’s and head in - the shopkeeper, a half-giant woman, is chopping meat with a huge cleaver
  • Regi orders some pig blood and fills his 6 jam jars
  • Jack orders 12 assorted ears for Janet
• We can level up!

SCHEDULED: <2025-07-17 Thu>

• Mordoe and Tetuel finish lunch and meet up with the others
• What do we have to do while we’re at the Arconsphere?
  • Deliver the Handle’s Stand guard captain’s message
  • Not much to say to Lady Lefay but we could check in with her
    • (Al reminded us that she said she’d give us money for meeting up here whether or not we got vampire teeth)
  • Recommend Trix for the academy
  • Hattie hasn’t paid us - she’s somewhere in the tower
  • Buy healing potions and other magical stuff
• We’re just in the village around the base of the tower. There are guards around the arched entrance into the tower
  • Essence asks a guard where would be a decent place to stay for travellers. The guard looks him up and down and recommends the Hunt & Harper - down the alleyway, along the curtain wall
• We head to the Hunt & Harper - a male halfling behind the bar (Willy) points us at the table
  • 5 beds will take an hour to get ready, 3GP total. Essence pays and he, Jack and Regi buy some lunch
  • We talk about what to do next
• A female dwarf wanders over and offers a drinking competition
  • Jack accepts and bets 2GP - the dwarf doesn’t have that and offers her necklace styled like bones
  • Turns out she took all our drinks while we were distracted. Willy is either in on it (so we buy more drinks) or happy to let her get away with it
  • Mordoe stays behind here for a bit (Dee isn’t here)
• Head back to the gate - guards have changed but same uniform. Full mail, purple tabbard with a white tower on it. We talk to one
  • There are 8 secretaries inside - one for each domain. He doesn’t want to let us in without a purpose
  • The message will be for Lord Arcathus, master of abjuration (based on its seal) - guard offers to have it taken to him but we want to get in
    • A spell guard will walk with us, to keep us safe as well as on track
  • He checks if we’ve been here before and describes

    Inside

    Bigger

    Ground floor

    Open to most. Grand bazaar, archives (library), main tavern

    2nd floor

    Spell guard garrison, secretaries for the 8 domains

    • Go here, find a clerk off to the side, they will ring a bell which will summon the secretary

    Upper floors

    Avoid - the high lords have their own defenses (middle layers are each dedicated to a different school of magic)

    Top of tower

    Grand audience chamber to speak with council. Magical elevator from 3rd level to there

  • We ask about Lady Lefay - her domain is necromancy (the guard seems reluctant to talk about her, and is worried that we didn’t know that!)
    • That explains why Tetuel realised (back in Durgarshope) that she’s not alive
  • This guard, Tomothy, has trained under some of the greatest weapons masters in the land
  • We ask about our tasks

    Captain’s message

    Already asked - talk to clerk and get to secretary of master of abjuration

    Lady Lefay

    Again, talk to clerk

    Admissions

    Talk to the archivist - the archivist is also the one who keeps this place moving

    Hattie

    Talk to a clerk

    Healing potions

    Grand bazaar, ground floor

  • Tomothy assigns us a spell guard as a guide - a dragonborn with his hood up. He just silently points us the way with a magical flame - Tomothy says his name is Dareth
• We head in through the arch
  • In front of us is a huge open marketplace with ornate carved balconies around, and at the far end two white pillars with pitch black between them
  • Dareth points us up a floating spiral staircase and stops us as a bolt of lightning flies past
• A room with an extremely long wooden table with people talking and ringing bells - these must be the clerks
• We join a queue in front of a gnome called Mindy with half-moon spectacles
  • She is very efficient and continues writing as Essence tries to make small talk
  • Rings a bell to summon the secretary
• The secretary arrives, wearing a symbol matching that on the seal
  • Reads it and wants to send a response. However she assumed we arrived magically and could teleport back, and instead teleports it herself
  • Doesn’t seem keen on sending us in to Crestfall (probably doesn’t think we’d be able to help much)
  • Hands Tetuel a card
    • Calling card for the domain of abjuration
    • Summons secretary
    • Will alert people in the tower that we are mercenaries of their domain
    • “If you break the law while carrying it, it will destroy you”
  • Asks if Regi performs music. There’s a bard competition on the ground floor - at the Moonlit Hearth
• Dareth conjures an image of Lady Lefay and mimes calling her
  • His tongue is cut in 3 so he can’t speak
  • Let’s not push our luck with her? But she did offer money for meeting her here, even if we didn’t have any blood-drinker teeth
• We hand Lady Lefay’s calling card to Mindy and she rings a bell again
  • The door opens, Lady Lefay steps out, and the room goes quiet
  • LL invites us back through the door with her - everyone is wary, Dareth carefully following
  • “Are you ok with being cold?” There’s a green flash as she steps across the threshold
  • We step through - all the cold we’ve ever known hits us all at once as we cross the threshold. Dareth stays outside
  • She offers us wine or anything to eat
    • After some reassurance, Jack takes some fire whiskey - it burns and poisens them. They cast Lesser Restoration - it doesn’t feel nice like it usually would but they are cured
    • Regi takes some iced vodka - his breath comes out frosty and his lips turn deep blue
      • Lady Lefay asks him “Which of your friends is your favourite? Would you like to blow them a kiss?”
      • R’s blown kiss fires an Ice Knife at Tetuel
  • Lefay asks us about the teeth
    • We say we haven’t got any but we have found somebody who drinks blood. Regi gets out his jar of blood and takes a sip
    • She hands us 900GP each, Tetuel holds Mordoe’s share for him
• Lady Lefay asks to bring in Lord Zalazar (?), leader of her domain, to take a look at Regi
  • She says Regi’s not quite dead but not quite alive
  • Puts her hand squishily through the mirror to summon Lord Zalazar
  • Lord Zalazar is very bouncy and enthusiastic
    • “May I… touch you?” - on Regi’s “yes” he immediately sticks his fingers straight into Regi’s mouth
    • After a bit of examination he turns his head all the way around and there’s another face on the back. This guy is much more subdued
      • “Oh god he’s put his fingers in your mouth again hasn’t he?” - wipes his hand
    • “You’re a twin soul. Were you born this way?” (Lady Gaga starts playing)
    • “There is a solution - we could kill you and then bring you back. We’d probably get the right one, it depends who has the better claim”
    • “Would you care to devote yourself? Join us. As you may have noticed, your friends are slowly dying” - they have “maybe a minute more”, Lady Lefay has been “very generous”
      • “We are in the realm of the dead.” - Regi: “Cool”
      • “We go round rooting out those who try to manipulate death for their own purposes”
      • “Will I be able to stop drinking blood?” - yes, but would be stuck in this realm forever
  • We need to get going so we don’t die! We hurry back out the door
• Dareth meets us outside and is confused - to him it’s as if we hadn’t gone in yet! No time has passed. He waves it off, weird stuff happens here all the time
• We go back to the desks again and ask for Hattie
  • Takes 5-10 minutes and she is annoyed we woke her up for gold
    • We take the payment in platinum just for fun - 500GP total (100 each, so 10 platinum each)
  • Jack asks about getting Trix in
    • Is she rich? Has she done some sort of massive display of magic? Otherwise she could come here and get tested
  • “There’s only one thing worse than a divinator. An enchanter!” - she’s of the school of transmutation
  • She’s turned the grand audience chamber into a coral reef - that was the trick the secretary talked about earlier (she wanted to know how Hattie did it)
  • If we do see Lady Minerva, Hattie did not do “the jelly fish thing” - (turning a river into jellyfish, she totally did it)
  • Hattie saunters off upstairs
• That’s most of the to-do list - grand bazaar next
  • Dareth leaves us once we’re downstairs and returns to the entrance
  • Find an apothecary - a gnome with a third eye at The Mind’s Eye
    • We buy healing potions, Tetuel buys water breathing, Regi buys invisibility
  • We head round to a shop that might have a bag of holding
    • The shopkeeper is a changeling with a singsong voice who likes to speak in rhymes
    • They have a hole of holding - as a demo, pushes Tetuel into it
    • Jack buys an actual bag of holding for 500GP
• Out of time - let’s continue next session

SCHEDULED: <2025-08-06 Wed>

• Mordoe gets directed by Dareth to the bazaar and finds the rest of us. He’s looking for armour so we head to the Tower’s Anvil, staffed by an ogre whacking what looks like a door with a giant hammer on a large anvil
  • Mordoe’s looking for leather armour but it’s pricey
    • 2000GP for green+brown studded leather armour which makes you a bit harder to see and can turn itself invisible (but not you)
  • The ogre’s name is Dudley - his brothers called him Dud instead of his real name, Deadly
  • Looks like Mordoe needs more dough
• Looking for magical rings - Nitwits & Spell Stitches, run by Zennia Threadvault
  • Mordoe asks for a ring - she has a protection ring for 3500GP - Mordoe puts it back down carefully
  • An owl lands on Mordoe’s shoulder and tells him that Dudley sent a message. He found magical armour that’s less good but cheaper - 1250GP
  • Zennia has a necklace for 500GP that lets you adapt to different gases - better chance in poison gas, or probably anything else inhaled
• We head back to Dudley to check out that armour
  • For some reason the message owls are called Wols
  • Studded leather armour +1 for 1250GP - Mordoe buys, borrowing 208GP from Tetuel
• Next we look for a fletcher - elven guy in late 700s called Fletcher
  • Jack asks if he has any magical arrows

    Spoil arrow

    didn’t write down what this does

    Invisibility arrow

    Target turns invisible, lasts for minutes

    Vampire arrow

    Starts to necrotise their flesh and siphon out blood

    Arrow of delay

    Stops for 6 seconds, then carries on, freezes target for 6 seconds if they’re still in the line of fire

    Tipsy arrow

    Makes target drunk for a few minutes

    (no term)

    Jack buys the vampire arrow and the arrow of delay, plus an efficient quiver (very fancy)

• Next we look for somewhere to sell the wand of cat’s grace - “Scrolling with the times”
  • Offers a trade depending the value of what we choose
    • Wand of detect magic
    • Wand of conducting (music)
    • Wand of secret detection
    • Wand of spell bonus (+1 spell attack)
    • Wand of enemy detection (tell if someone’s hostile even if they’re hidden)
  • Mordoe swaps the wand of cat’s grace for the wand of enemy detection
  • Tetuel buys 2 scrolls of identify for 100GP, hands them to Regi buuut we now need to find a pearl worth 100GP
• Back to the haberdashery then - Regi pays for the pearl
  • Zennia makes a magical red robe with midnight blue embroidery scrollwork with a swooshing enchantment for Tetuel
  • She gives Mordoe a small length of green ribbon since he can’t afford anything here
• Enough shopping, let’s go to the archives!
  • As we get close, light starts to bend a bit, we see a beautiful cathedral built from petrified scrolls and ink, and pillars made from scrolls. The bookshelves appear to curve in on each other
  • A well-dressed young elf woman greets us
  • We ask about Trix enrolling - they’ll need an item linked to Gremble to contact him. We reluctantly hand over the text specs (they’ll need to keep them to send the message)
  • What about accessing books about Blooddrinkers?
    • The Hollow Index (the necromancy one), but it requires madness (not clear what this means) - do not attempt to access other books
• And so we head to the Hollow Index
  • Down a corridor of bookshelves which is both straight and winding. The quietness becomes sombre and the corridor behind us is dark when we look back
  • There’s a pedestal with six levitating bones above it. Mordoe recognises what they are
    • Polished femur engraved with runes of mercy
    • Rib wrapped in soulthread
    • Phalanx engraved “vigil”, glowing black
    • Shoulder fragment burned at the edge
    • Knuckle bone with names inscribed in a circle around it
    • Spine shard engraved with “memory’s weight”
  • Tetuel looks around and finds writing - “Choose the bone belonging to the legendary necromancer who shaped the hollow index. Failure results in pain and discomfort”
    • Mordoe touches the cracked rib with the soulthread - feels sorrowful vibration
    • Tetuel touches the phalanx, hears a chant that goes on and on
    • Regi touches the femur, hears whispers saying “so sorry” with the humming of a mother’s song
    • Jack touches the shoulder fragment - feels cold and there’s crackling energy and glyphs in the air
    • Tetuel touches the knuckle bone, starts hearing giggles
    • Mordoe touches the spine shard, it gets darker and darker until he’s sure he will never see light again (until he lets go)
  • Mordoe knows bones often have an aura around them. Regi does an arcana check but can’t think of anything. Tetuel knows from stories that necromancers often had glyphs
  • After some discussion Tetuel tries to pick up the shoulder fragment. The other bones go dark, there’s a coldness emanating from the bone, the glyphs appear brighter and brighter
    • A figure appears - “You have chosen poorly. When ink is memory and bone is vow [etc, couldn’t keep up]”
    • The bone freezes down Tetuel’s wrist as a severe cold burns all the way down
  • The whole area goes dark again, and we’re now facing out toward the sofas and chairs again
  • Tetuel asks the lady outside which necromancer shaped the hollow index - nobody knows the name, he’s just “the necromancer”
  • There are 7 sections in the library and she describes them
    • For twin souls, maybe look in blood magic?

SCHEDULED: <2025-08-21 Thu>

• We ask about the library sections again

  Aetherium Stacks

  Interplanatary travel guides, transmutation law

  Convergence Vault

  Conjuration / planar binding

  Whisper Looms

  Enchantment, illusion

  Mirror-crack Hall

  Forbidden histories from fractured timelines

  Crimson Annex

  Blood magic, …

  Unfinished Codex Wing

  Books writing themselves

  Hollow Index

  Necromancy and shit

• We can’t get back into the Hollow Index for 24 hours
  • Regi wonders if he can get the sword to take over his body and that would count as someone else?
    • Starts talking to the sword - the voice reasons that Regi must be the mad one
• Can we find out about the necromancer who helped create the library? Check in the Mirror-crack hall for forbidden histories
  • There are regular history textbooks in the normal section too
  • If you take the books out of the library you will die
• Can we find out how the books are arranged? Whether there’s a system?
  • We look in the normal section for books about the necromancer involved in the founding of the library
  • Can’t work out if the library was here first or the Arconsphere was
  • Apparently nobody has seen the entirety of the library
• An owl appears and says the archivist is ready to see us, tells us to follow it
  • It flies through a bookcase and we follow
  • The figure in front of us looks up, holding a floating book, hood up over her head. She introduces herself as Archivist Ravendell
  • Paying for Trix’s education would be 100GP/month
    • Has she done a magical feat? We don’t know
    • Enter her name into the book - someone will assess her. We would need to pay for 6 months of her being here, and it would take her 3-5 years to graduate
    • Essence pays 600GP for Trix’s tuition and the archivist makes a receipt. Essence signs and his name changes colour
  • An elderly gentleman comes in - the archivist addresses him as Harold
    • She tells him to go and find Trix in Durgarshope
    • He picks up the Text Specs - will return within the day
  • Crown of Asmodeus - recommends looking up planar travel and getting something from the same plane
  • She confirms Arconsphere wizards are Imperial wizards - so the ones we killed while freeing the nature spirit were Arconsphere wizards
    • This is the Crestfall Empire
    • The forest spirit - talk to the archmages in the tower

      Transmutation

      Lady Minerva

      Conjuration

      Lord Fenegorn

      Abjuration

      Lord Archathenus?

      (no term)

      Warns us not to bother them though (and we probably shouldn’t tell them we killed wizards)

  • Aetherium Stacks - there’ll be books floating around, go towards them
  • 10GP for her to find a record of an Arconsphere expedition into the Dragonspear mountains 60 years ago with Freya Hillbearer and Madame Ysir
    • Tetuel pays - the archivist will send an owl
  • We leave her to it
• To the Aetherium stacks!
  • Books all around, and an archway with 3 floating sigils above it - one sapphire, one amber, one emerald
  • 4 books on plinths

    Notes on Breathing Planes

    blah blah 3 beats per breath blah blah amber

    Chromatic Echoes vol. 2

    5 harmonic pulses blah blah sapphire

    The Emerald Displacement

    blah blah 2-fold rhythmic collapse (what does that even mean?)

    Treatise of Shadow-wind(?) Interference

    blah blah dance to 9th beat

  • Fucking around ensues
    • Trying to interpret the rhythms described in the books and perform them simultaneously, no change
    • We can move the sigils around. Jack tries putting the sigils together - won’t occupy the same space
    • Tetuel tries to push the amber sigil through the door, almost gets zapped
    • No other ideas, Tetuel gets pushed to go through and disappears. Essence cries “It worked!” and follows
    • Mordoe tries to push the sapphire through, gets zapped
    • Jack pushes the emerald through, hears a note and it reappears. Pushes the amber through next, then the sapphire
      • They then walk through the archway and disappear with a clap of thunder. Mordoe follows, and eventually Regi does too
  • Regi turns up in an area surrounded by books, with Mordoe and Jack waiting for him
    • Jack looks for books about Asmodeus, finds a description
      • 9th circle of hell
      • Sees him wearing a crown
    • Jack looks up interplanar travel - you need something/someone from the plane you’re going to
    • Regi looks up the centaur plane - the fae plane of existence
      • The closest realm to the one we live in. Time there is weird.
      • Get there through use of toadstools, be tricked there, or make your own way between planes
  • They leave, back out into the main atrium
• Tetuel and Essence are held, dazed, by books against a wall
  • Jack tears the books of Tetuel then Essence. They’ve been pinned there for a few hours and are quite grumpy
• Now getting towards the evening? Head back to the inn?
  • Don’t let Regi forget about the bard competition

SCHEDULED: <2025-09-24 Wed>

• We head to the inn near the bazaar - looks like some stalls are opening and some closing. We get the impression that the grand bazaar is basically perpetually open
• The Moonlit Hearth tavern, “a refuge where moonlight meets mead”
  • It casts celestial illusions onto nearby shops. The doors swing open in front of us automatically
  • There’s someone standing by the stage with a piece of paper, writing down names
  • A red tiefling bouncer greets us. We voluntell Regi for the bard competition and the bouncer points us to the person by the stage
    • The prize is a free stay here for the night
  • The competition is:
    • First round perform in front of 3 judges
    • Second round bard-off
    • Third round competitive team event
  • The dryad twins behind the bar get us a booth
    • The drinks are veeery expensive
  • Regi signs up with Mike the Mic (as “Brad”), who is very enthusiastic and offers him an extremely spicy red drink
  • First round is in 30 minutes. We try our drinks
    • Smoking beers, teapot of diamond glittering drink
    • Tetuel takes a sip of the twilight tonic, a devil and angel on a green background appear over his head (based on alignment)
• First round - Mike the Mic announces the beginning of the competition. He introduces various competitors to the crowd and judges

  Stumbletoes

  halfling with tin whistle playing war tunes, judges say yes

  Mr Swift

  Half-elf with pan flute - judges say no

  Someone I didn’t write down

  Plays a flute made from a demon’s femur, starts casting a spell with it. Someone in the crowd casts Fireball to stop them, someone counterspells it. Judges say no

  Dwarf with war horn

  no

  Caius the Conductor

  Human waves his hands around and music appears as if he’s conducting an invisible orchestra. Judges say yes

  Baron von Squawk

  Copies audience noises perfectly. Mordoe makes a honk noise with the staff of birdcalls and he fails to copy. No from judges

  Regi as Brad the Bard

  Chugs his remaining ale, gets out the bongoes, slowly builds up a rhythm, crowd loves it.

  More

  Some yeses, some nos. Kazoo player falls on their kazoo, hammer and anvil player breaks hammer, Lyra the aasimar sings beautifully, mime gets through

  Vex the Venomous

  Copies Essence’s look and we turn to look at Essence - he’s completely disappeared! She appears to know about Brian and what he does. Stabs herself and crumblies into nothing. Essence reappears by the stage and is surrounded by confused people buying him drinks

• Second round
  • Everyone performs in pairs
  • Brad vs Vex - alternating performances, Vex copies him as an exact double, goes faster and faster, both roll a natural 20
    • At one point they switch to playing each others’ bongos
    • Regi steps back and makes Vex slip up
• Final round - basically don’t mess up
  • Stumbletoes, Brad, Reece Copperfoot (tap dancer), Lyra, Caius
  • Regi lays on his back, plays his bongos upside down, holding them with his knees
  • Reece Copperfoot steps on Lyras foot, she yells and is out
  • Caius and Stumbletoes duel, Stumbletoes stumbles
  • Caius tries to kick Regi’s bongos, he dodges and Caius messes up
  • Just Regi vs Copperfoot now. Copperfoot tap dances onto Regi, starts kicking at his head. Regi endures and starts playing with 2 fingers, holding the bongos in his other hand
    • Copperfoot falls off the stage, breaks his leg
• Regi has won! People in the crowd hand each other bet money
  • Mike says “You know, nobody’s ever done it twice in a row… I’m kidding, of course people have”
• To the room! It’s behind the giant clock - Regi checks it out
  • There’s a massive bed, a solid gold bath, fruits and meat and cheese laid out
  • Other doors appear with more beds, plenty of room for everyone else
  • Regi realises he can manipulate the room with his mind, messes with us a bit and then thinks about how it could be useful
    • What if he makes the crown of Asmodeus appear? It does and he puts it in the bag of cursed things
    • How about a centaur? A taxidermied centaur appears. Essence cuts into the human chest and there’s half a human heart, plus half a horse heart in the horse chest. It appears to be based on Regi’s imagination of how that would work
    • Regi imagines some fresh blood into existence, plus a superior healing potion and a bag of holding
  • Of course we’re now assuming none of this is real. We eat and head to bed in four posters with intricate headboards
• We wake up feeling refreshed and ready to face the day
  • Each room has a window with the sun rising, and a hot plate of breakfast floating next to the bed
• Regi imagines an apothecary into existence - Tom
  • “I made you a potion” - “a potion of what?” - “What do you want it to be?” - a circular conversation ensues
  • Eventually he takes the “potion of summon the crown of Asmodeus” and the crown goes from the sack of cursed things into Regi’s hands
• We set out - Regi first, and the rest of us then get pushed out. We hear a faint “free my children!”???
• Back to the archives to find out about Trix
  • We see Harold with a book, showing it to Trix. She’s been accepted!
  • He’s treating her like she’s stupid, talking very slowly etc. Shuffles her off
• Let’s ask about transport
  • Can teleport to other places with teleportation circles, the Arconsphere one is up on the third(?) floor
    • Would need to be on official business or very rich to get teleported
    • We reason it’s unlikely Kalkugrim will have a teleportation circle so we need another option
• The guards point us to the harbour outside the tower, down on the river
  • Try the harbourmaster’s office - a suited half orc with a cutlass
  • Our best bet is Captain Dingleberry - wears a stetson hat, his boat is the one with a horse on the front. We’ll know when we see him
    • We go to find him - he’s a centaur (oh no…) with a stutter
      • He’ll be in the deep - could sell us rowboats to get to shore (can’t lend them because he’s not gonna hang around to retrieve them)
      • He likes the horses and Janet
• Time to negotiate a price?

SCHEDULED: <2025-10-20 Mon>

• The harbour is very clean and fancy
• The ship is the Sea’s Gallop
  • It’s heading the way we want to go - the waters there are too rough to swim to shore, we’ll be about a mile from shore
  • About 8 days to get there - sailing off just before sunset today
  • 1GP per person per day all in, plus 100GP to take his rowboat. 5GP/horse/day for horses
    • But Mordoe can cast Water Walk and we could just walk to shore, with the horses
  • The captain welcomes us aboard and introduces us to the first mate Thock, a half orc with braided beard and eyepatch
    • He’s the enforcer and bosun - if you break the rules you’ll be overboard
  • We pay for 8 days, they’ll give 1 day’s grace if it takes longer and then we’ll have to pay a reduced rate for any extra days
  • What about Janet? The kitty can come on for free, eat any rats
  • 32GP each, Tetuel pays for Mordoe as he’s skint
• Thock introduces the crew as he shows us round

  Varys

  Wood elf navigator and quartermaster

  Grizelda Stoneshield

  Dwarvish shipwright and engineer

  Finch

  Human with spectacles, very nervous. Ship’s surgeon but squeamish around blood. Also good at repairing sails

  Pip Bumble

  Gnome with frizzy hair - gunner at the ballista. Not expecting much trouble but there’s always some

  Kael

  female tiefling with ramlike horns and a lyre. She’s the morale officer

  Riptide

  Triton who doesn’t speak much but “by golly can he sail”

  Krag

  Ogre ship’s cook, mostly seems to stay below decks

• The ship
  • About 80ft long, 20ft wide
  • Sails are deep crimson on an 80ft mast
  • Ballista at the rear
  • Hammocks for us belowdecks, with the cargo (8ft ceiling since this is a boat made for a centaur)
  • Small iron cage with the cargo with some more precious things locked away
  • Beautifully carved and painted stallion figurehead
  • Long rowboat of same dark wood as the hull
• First night’s dinner
  • Krag sticks his head around the door and says “FOOD READY STEADY EAT”, then brings out an entire table of food (by carrying the table)
  • The captain eats in his own quarters
• After dinner the crew cast off and Captain Dingleberry invites us up to his quarters. The sails are fully down and we’re moving fast
• Day 1
  • Mordoe notices boxes floating in the water, tells Pip Bumble the gunner
  • Pip lets Mordoe have some target practice, shooting the boxes with the ballista, with a rope attached to pull them in
  • Pulls back a box filled with yellow wooden ducks - gets Jack to put them in the bag of holding
    • There’s a note at the bottom of the crate - “ducks of luck, 1GP each”. He’s found a fortune! Just need to find someone who wants 100 wooden ducks
  • Pip goes back to cleaning “Clarissa” the ballista
• Day 2: Ships spotted ahead. Pip jumps into the ballista seat
  • Just sea traders, Tetuel buys some rations as they float by
• Day 3: Regi is sitting around, Kael asks if he’s any good, played anywhere cool. Gets Regi to play, she sings along and the boat starts sailing faster
• Day 4: Tetuel’s walking along the railings, sees something glittering, a shiny pot. Ties a rope onto the railings and himself, Mordoe holds the end, Tetuel’s end comes off him as he dives in
  • It’s a shiny brass teapot. The others haul him back out and Grizelda offers to teach him knots later
  • The teapot pours out a hot brown liquid which smells vaguely meaty. It’s gravy, and good gravy! The teapot seems to infinitely produce it. Tetuel gives it to Krag and he pours it into his mouth. That night we eat a lot of gravy
• Day 5: There’s a storm brewing. Everyone ties themselves down
  • Riptide says we’ll have to try to outrun it
  • We help the crew and make it through, but have lost the progress we gained. Probably now about a day away from our destination
• Day 6: Boat limping along, crew doing repairs
  • Jack sees something under the water and we all rush over to look. Jack shoots at whatever’s rapidly moving towards the ship
  • Giant tentacles appear at the stern and we start attacking them
  • Mordoe casts Call Lightning but it doesn’t seem to affect the tentacles
  • Essence casts Fly on himself and rains down Eldritch Blasts
  • Jack keeps their distance and shoots at the tentacles
  • The tentacles rear back and a giant maw appears with blue-green scales
  • Another creature appears at the side of the boat, bringing a tidal wave with it - Jack goes flying to the back of the boat. Most of the crew get knocked overboard, except for Finch, Thock and the captain. The captain goes for the ship’s wheel
  • Jack throws out a rope to Grizelda and she starts climbing up. Mordoe ties a rope to the side and leaves it trailing for the others
  • One creature grabs Tetuel, the other grabs Regi and Mordoe
  • Finch throws a potion to Regi
  • Regi casts Dissonant Whispers on the creature holding him and it drops him and jumps off the boat into the sea. Mordoe turns into a frog and swims back toward the surface. The creature comes back and attacks him, breaking the frog form. It comes back up and goes for the captain
  • Jack shoots 2 arrows into the mouth of the creature holding Regi and Tetuel and it dies
  • Everyone focuses on the remaining creature - Mordoe turns into a bear while grappled, Essence blasts from the sky, Tetuel heals the captain who’s being squeezed
  • Eventually the creature turns to run and Tetuel stabs it in the back as it turns. It falls into the water, dropping the captain and Mordoe, who are dragged back aboard by the crew and revived

SCHEDULED: <2025-10-30 Thu>

• Finch helps patch up the captain - “that was quite something” and the crew begin repairing the ship
• We sleep and it’s time to head to shore - we’re nearish to Kalkugrim!
  • Mordoe casts Speak with Animals to convince the horses to get overboard, Sarge needs some extra convincing. Mordoe offers him extra titles - ends up with “Just Admiral”
    • Sarge declares the centaur captain “vaguely good looking from behind”
  • The horses step overboard onto the sea solidified by Mordoe’s spell and we all walk to shore
• Heading through the woods, Mordoe starts to recognise the area
• The woods go silent as we get close to Mordoe’s village
  • The village is destroyed, there’s blood everywhere even though it’s rained. The central tree (the heartwood) is damaged. The wind whispers “Danger. Decay. Death”. A singular raven caws. The air has a sweet metallic smell of dying.
  • Mordoe casts Speak with Plants on the heartwood - it’s cold to the touch, its moss black and withered. He hears a very faint “Welcome home Mordoe.” It sends images of attack, pain, death, metal. Its life force is extremely weak, flickering. The tree has a feeling that not everyone died
  • Jack investigates the footprints around the place. The soil has been disturbed by heavy armoured boots, kinda similar to Mordoe’s footprint size. 1-2 carts were taken away too, around a month ago. That lines up with when Mordoe got the message.
    • Seems like the attack was at night, fast and by surprise
  • Everything natural here is avoiding the area
  • We find a small token - a ritual item for a child, snapped in half and thrown toward the heart tree
  • Tetuel checks slightly underground for black goo like at the forest spirit’s forest - none
  • The raven looks at Mordoe - “Death. Decay. Unnatural. Corrupt. I am the raven. I watch. Men with shiny cages. Your grandfather. That way. Save him.” It flies off
  • Essence pushes a door open and finds a hatch under a mat - Mordoe recognises it as a cellar for valuables. There are some rations with a scroll of protection against evil. In the bed there’s a doll that looks like a small bear - we take it in case it belongs to someone alive.
• Jack leads us following the tracks - Mordoe recognises we’re approaching a river where they go for a blessing
  • We start to see mist across the floor. More and more trees are visibly withered. The mist reaches our shoulders and the air is cold and clammy. We leave the horses a little way back and then the mist gets thicker - we all hold onto a rope.
• In the clearing we hear a moaning, screeching noise from at least 2 different directions. Roll initiative!
  • We all prepare to be attacked - Jack lets go of the rope and runs off into the mist
  • Creatures surround the rest of us, faces like melted wax, some sort of drowned humanoid, long flickering tongue. They have an overwhelming stench of death and decay
    • Their attacks cause paralysis and their smell is poisonous
  • Someone shoots crackling energy at us from a distant tree - Regi climbs Mordoe to get above the mist and fires back, knocking them off their perch temporarily
  • Jack finds a figure who’s more of a fighter than a zombie, it snarls, pulls an axe out and goes into a fury. They take it down
  • Two ogres with rotting flesh crash out of the trees and attack Tetuel
  • Regi and Mordoe start to take down the humanoid creatures and Mordoe casts Lesser Restoration on Essence - he flies up, gets hit twice by the creatures around him and falls back to earth unconscious
  • The distant person in the tree continues eldritch blasting
  • Mordoe summons a fire elemental next to Tetuel and the ogres!
  • Essence casts Fly on himself again and goes straight up 30ft, not getting hit this time