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[Koram]

Session 10 - 08/26/2022 - "Battle of the Super Long Road... Continued"

DM : Lasarian
Party: Baiz - Dour Warmfury - Mountain Dwarf Fighter/Champion - Mason's and Smith's Tools
Talo - Easeis - Human - Sorcerer/Spell Void - Dice Set and Thieves' Tools
Stel - Eilo - Fairy - Warlock/Celestial - Flute
Rox - Kismet of the Woods - Wood Elf Druid/Circle of the Land (Forest) - Herbalism Kit
Khaie - Magar - Grey Elf Wizard/School of Evocation - Herbalism Kit
Kor - Koram Orchammer - Hill Dwarf Cleric/Life Domain - Mason's, Cartographer's and Smith's Tools - Herbalism Kit


The party leaves the wagon behind, pulled off the road near the rock ledge, and begins to cautiously move east along the edges of the road. After progressing to near the point where they lost sight of Dweezle, the party is once again attacked. This time a pair of giant spiders leaps from the trees at the group. The group falls into what is becoming a combat routine, with the dwarves trying to engage the attackers in melee while the casters find the best positions to assault with their magic. After the first few moments of combat, two additional spiders join the fray. Dour and Koram pair up and roll from one spider to the next hammering them in melee. Easeis, Eilo, Kismet and Magar shift positions around the melee combat lashing out with cantrips to conserve their more powerful spells. The fight is intense but short as the spiders prove no match for the group and their slowly improving tactics.

The party quickly regroups and moves on to the east, hoping that the delay has not given the bandits time to reorganize their ranks. After only moving a short way, a bandit thug and his wolf-dog attack from the brush off to the south of the road. As the party engages, another bandit and wolf-dog emerge from the north side of the road and join the attack. The dwarves split north and south to engage the enemies in melee allowing the casters to focus on targeting one opponent at a time with their combined spells. The fight is short, but the back to back fights are beginning to take a toll. Both Dour and Koram have taken more than a few hits, and as the fight nears it's end, both down healing potions in order mend the worst of the wounds. With the bandits and wolf-dogs defeated, the group stops for a minute to assess their condition. Although the dwarves have both healed using the potions, they both still have a few minor wounds. Easeis, Eilo, Kismet and Magar have all suffered from grazing wounds from crossbows and being hit when the bandits have managed to surprise or successfully flank them to get in melee range. Everyone decides that, while no one is at their absolute best, the group still has plenty of magic resources left for the day and is not so gravely injured that they cannot continue forward.

Unsure if the small size of the last ambush was due to dwindling bandit numbers, or if it was just a ploy to slow the party's advance, the group decides to proceed with even more caution. The are no longer any shouts, or noise of any kind, coming from the east. The party moves east to a point where the road turns hard to the north. As they reach the bend, they can see that the road splits with a well worn trail, wide enough for a wagon to pass, branching to the north and the main road continuing to the east. Rather than leave a potential threat behind them by ignoring the north trail and simply heading east, the group stops to investigate. Kismet sends her owl familiar to the north to scout and report anything of interest back to her. After the owl returns, and Kismet spends a minute communicating with it, she relates that, from what she can gather, the owl saw some kind of walled camp with several humanoids moving rapidly about the area.

The party moves forward as stealthily as possible with two heavily armored dwarves, and manages to spread out within about 50 feet of what appears to be a wooden palisade about 20 feet high. It is set up in such a way to take advantage of the natural terrain with a few large boulders as anchor points for the constructed wall sections. There is some kind of walkway on the inside near the top of the palisade wall, as the group can just barely see a human bandit and what appear to be two hobgoblins pacing behind the top of the logs. Once the party has taken position behind various cover, a fallen log, small trees and a large stump, they look back and forth to each other and as one attack. Both dwarves fire heavy crossbows and the casters all unleash their magic on the foes under the partial cover of the palisade. In less than a minute, the human thug drops for sight, apparently dead, and one of the hobgoblins hit by Eilo's eldritch blast, powered with the Grasp of Hadar, has been yanked up over the top of the palisade and dropped to the ground. The group has not escaped unscathed, however, as Eilo has been struck solidly by an arrow from one of the hobgoblin's longbows, and a few other grazing shots have been taken by those on the ground. In the next few seconds, the group has focused all it's attacks on the hobgoblin outside the wall and it also drops dead. The group hears several different shouts from within the camp behind the wall, and knows there are more bandits coming, along with one hobgoblin on still on the palisade walkway. One gruff voice stands out, yelling in Common, "Where do you think you're going!". Koram and Eilo dispense some minor healing magic to take care of the worst of the wounds suffered by Eilo and Kismet. Dour digs in, grips his battle axe and begins a dwarven battle chant, feeling a second wind which makes his injuries seem less severe. The group continues the fight against the hobgoblin on the wall while preparing for the other incoming enemies.

End Session 10

100 XP awarded for the running road battle and palisade fight to this point.

[Koram]

Session 11 - 09/02/2022 - "Battle at the Palisade Camp" - *Notes include additional RP from the Greyhawk Main and In Character Discord Channels from between sessions*

DM : Lasarian
Party: Baiz - Dour Warmfury - Mountain Dwarf Fighter/Champion - Mason's and Smith's Tools
Talo - Easeis - Human - Sorcerer/Spell Void - Dice Set and Thieves' Tools
Stel - Eilo - Fairy - Warlock/Celestial - Flute
Rox - Kismet of the Woods - Wood Elf Druid/Circle of the Land (Forest) - Herbalism Kit
Khaie - Magar - Grey Elf Wizard/School of Evocation - Herbalism Kit
Kor - Koram Orchammer - Hill Dwarf Cleric/Life Domain - Mason's, Cartographer's and Smith's Tools - Herbalism Kit


The group is still engaged in battle with one hobgoblin on the palisade walkway with other enemies fast approaching. Koram and Dour try to maneuver to a spot where they can lock down the one entrance the group sees in the SW corner of the palisade wall, hoping to bottleneck any enemies coming out that way. Unfortunately, while three fresh opponents do come that way, barreling out of the palisade opening, another bandit joins the hobgoblin already on the wall. Dour and Koram do their best to engage the three on the ground while trying to stay out of easy view for easy shots for the enemies on the wall. Easeis moves up near the dwarves hoping to get the angle to cast an area of effect spell. He hugs the base of the wall to avoid making himself a target for the archers on the palisade. Magar has moved into the cover of trees some distance to the southeast, but still within range of his fire bolt, allowing him to step from cover, fire, and then step back out of sight. Kismet remains closer to the center of the battle at the base of the wall, but also puts a tree between herself and the archers. She also commands her owl to make diving assaults against the archers on the wall, but the hobgoblin realizes the distraction the owl is causing, and kills it with a well placed arrow. Eilo lands a blast on the bandit archer, but has become the focus of that bandit and the hobgoblin on the walkway. She takes another solid hit from and arrow along with a grazing shot. Realizing she has definitely become the primary target of the pair of archers, and becoming dizzy from her wounds and blood loss, she makes a beeline retreat to the south and drops to cover behind the closest tree she can find. Dour and Koram have the orc and two human bandits engaged and everyone is trading hits, allowing Easeis to step away from the wall and land a ray of frost on the human archer on the wall. Magar also lands a fire bolt, and Kismet a produce flame on the same archer, dropping him behind the wall. The remaining hobgoblin archer disappears from view. Dour and Koram have both again sustained several wounds, while the orc and two human bandits have only taken a few minor hits. Kismet feels the time has come to use the inspired healing spirit give to her by the Old Gods. She places the spirits directly over Koram's location instantly healing him, and as the battle continues, Dour is able to move through it as they maneuver in combat. Eilo uses her remaining healing light to deal with the worst of her wounds and is then also able to swoop down through the healing spirit to bring her closer to full health. With the wall clear at the moment, Easeis, Kismet and Eilo are able to start bringing their dwindling magic reserves to bear on the three enemies fighting the dwarves. Seemingly out of nowhere, a fist sized rock hurtles in from the southeast and smashes into the orc bandit's skull, dropping him instantly. Unseen by the others, Magar has edged his way forward, still using trees for cover, and cast his catapult spell to great effect. The three bandits are a bit more pressed now that the spellcasters have joined the dwarves, but still land a few more hits on both Dour and Koram. Suddenly, Easeis feels a grazing cut across his back as a goblin, not Dweezle, but another that looks very much like him, steps out of the shadow of the wall, and surprise strikes with a dagger. While Dour and Koram stand toe to toe with the last two bandits, the casters unload on the sneaky goblin with fire bolt, produce flame, eldritch blast and ray of frost, killing him quickly. The hobgoblin on the wall pops back up and begins firing arrows at the group again, but does not land more than a grazing hit or two. The party refocuses their attacks on the two remaining bandits and finish them off. Dour and Koram surge forward through the palisade entrance eager to end the battle if there are any foes remaining. They are met by a remaining bandit that appears to be kitted out in similar, but better quality gear, than the others. The rest of the party follows the dwarves towards the entrance. Due to the wall, brush and angle, the hobgoblin on the walkway loses sight of the group, and turns to adjust his aim towards the entrance, where Dour and Koram have just entered. The dwarves quickly engage the bandit leader, and a metallic clang rings off Koram's pauldron as the hobgoblin's first arrow is deflected harmlessly away. As Easeis, Kismet and Magar approach the entrance, Dweezle lunges from the brush to the west of the entrance wildly stabbing a dagger at Magar, but missing. Magar quickly turns and extends his arm as a noxious looking green spray erupts from his outward facing palm striking Dweezle square in the face and chest. Dweezle begins to scream, but the sound quickly breaks off as he begins choking. Holding his face in both hands, foaming spittle dripping from between them, he crumples to the ground, dead. Easeis and Kismet add their cantrips to the attacks of the dwarves striking the bandit leader and he is dispatched in short order. The hobgoblin on the wall, seeing his leader slain, drops all his weapons and scrambles over the palisade, dropping to the ground outside. He takes of at a full sprint to the southeast, but does not notice a certain vengeful fairy in pursuit, until the first eldritch blast strikes him in the back. He continues fleeing, but in under a minute is blasted off his feet by Eilo.

The group back at the camp uses up the last of their healing spells, and begins inspecting the area and searching the camp while waiting for Eilo to return. The camp is surrounded on all sides with natural boulders with all gaps between them filled in with a rough 20 foot high palisade. The construction appears to be set up in a way that indicates some tactical or military experience, but the lack of carpentry and woodworking skills to build it properly. There are tents set up around a central firepit, but there are also two smaller bedrolls set up right by the fire. Eilo shows back up at the camp a couple of minutes after the group starts investigating the camp and joins in to help. The party finds 2,500 cp, 1,200 sp, 40 gp, five gemstones (Azurite, Blue Quartz, Eye Agate, Obsidian and Moss Agate) each worth 10gp, three Potions, one of which looks familiar as a Potion of Healing, a spell scroll of "Jump", and a Bag of Holding. There are also boxes of what appear to be trade goods piled up near the tents containing, three bolts of cloth, (canvas, linen and cotton), three kegs of ale, a keg of wine, 8 loaves of bread, a jar of ginger, 4 iron ingots, and a Black Forest Gateau chocolate cake with one slice removed. The bandit's equipment is also gathered up and consists of 2 Chain Mail Shirts, 1 Studded Leather, 2 Leather armor, 1 Shield, 4 Longswords,
1 Mace, 3 Daggers, 4 Longbows, 2 Spears, 1 Heavy Crossbow, 30 arrows, and 25 crossbow bolts.

It is still only mid morning and the group realizes their resources to perform any further combat are completely spent. Everyone is exhausted and suffering from at least minor wounds, so the group sits down to share the cake, rations and some water.

Easeis states, "I believe that Weezle and Dweezle weren't here by choice."

Koram responds, "Are you thinking they were somehow coerced into working with the bandits, maybe by the bandit leader, or some other reason?"

Easeis shares his conclusions with the group, "At the start of the fight were heard the bandit captain say "Where do you think you're going" to somebody inside the camp. Which first made me think that somebody was being held here, but we didn't find any obvious prisoners. Then looking at the camp, you can see there are enough tents for everybody, but these two smaller goblin-sized bedrolls are sleeping rough in the middle of the camp by the fire. Most of the bandits had crossbows, swords, and longbows of decent quality, but the goblins were only armed with crappy daggers. I think Dweezle was made to watch the road, while Weezle was held behind to keep him in line. I don't know how they came to be here, but I am pretty sure they were pressed into service."

Koram replies, "Interesting thoughts, Easis. I thought maybe the captain's question was because Dweezle was sneaking off to hide for his later ambush or that Weezle did something similar for when he later ambushed you. Everything you are saying definitely makes sense, though. If we are going to be zig zagging through the Gnarley Forest region doing jobs and possibly following the map lead we have, this might be a good camp to keep in mind as an out of the way base or operations. I'll add some details to the ongoing map I have been keeping for this location since we have some downtime."

Eilo chimes in, "I don't understand why Dweezle shot me if he wasn't really a bandit. Doesn't shooting people make you a bandit?".

Easeis responds, "Sometimes people with power over you make you do things."

Eilo, sounding conflicted, says, "Doesn't that make us bandits? We're being paid to... to kill things... and people."

Kismet jumps into the discussion, "Yes Eilo but, we are not evil creatures and we act to protect innocent travelers and citizens. When we take a life we do so because we have no choice. They have a choice and continue to rob and murder innocents!"

Koram states, "Orcs, gnolls, goblins, most of the time just evil. As Kismet said, we are being paid to make the area safer for the people that live in the region. Think about those we have killed, they have either attacked us or been preying on others. I do agree with Easeis though, it is remotely possible that Weezle and Dweezle were being coerced in some way. The fact remains they sided with the bandits and attacked us."

Dour grumbles, "Dweezle was being a condescending ass, even if he was coerced to helping them, he was too gleeful about it not to deserve what he got."

Eilo whispers to Kismet, "If I’m gleeful will Dour kill me, too?"

A short time later, Koram and Easeis volunteer to head back and grab the wagon and animals from back down the road where the running battle started about an hour before. They figure it will only take a few minutes to walk back and maybe an hour to search the bodies on the way back. The wagon is recovered along with the equipment and some more coin from the bandits along the road and the spider's webs. The party at camp moves the dead to a pile hear the palisade entrance, gathers up the equipment, coin and trade goods, so it can all be loaded onto the wagon when Easeis and Koram return, and then sit around the camp managing a short rest.

Having collected up the loot from the road bandits, snipers and dogs, done a quick check for spider lairs, Easeis and Koram are just about to take the turn northward to the palisade camp when they hear voices coming from the direction of the eastern road (which you would know is direction of the toll bridge). It sounds like gutter trash talk to Koram, but Easeis recognizes goblin. They are speaking in a normal tone of voice, they sound like they are swapping war stories, telling the occasional bawdy joke and speculating over "what happened" - they are walking at a leisurely pace, you cannot see them from the crossroad, but if you are still, you can make out some of what they are saying.

Voice One: "They overslept ... again."
Voice Two: "Aye, from drinking our spoils all night."
Voice One: "I'm too tired to care."
Voice Two snorts at that.
Voice Three: "This hole is drying up anyways, we should move on."
Voice Two: "Who asked you, maggot?"

Koram and Easeis quickly discuss a few options. Koram says, ""Let's get the cart jammed right in the entrance to the palisade to block it up a bit and set the brake. Donkeys to the inside so they can't just take the brake off and move it out of the way easily. Get everyone ranged on the wall and Dour and I can set up at the wagon. Maybe we can bluff them somehow into thinking they don't have a chance against us. Maybe get Dour to chuck the leaders head at them or something."

Easeis replies, "Sounds like a plan to me."

The pair then realize that the voices are too close and will likely reach the intersection of the trails at about the same time as the wagon, and instead decide to stop the cart at the edge of the road. Koram piles the crates in the back of the wagon for a cover position if needed.

Easeis says, "We can sneak up to the bluff on the west, overlooking the cart."

Koram and Easeis aren't sure they can make it in time without being detected. Koram says, "Let's just park the cart in the brush along the road and hope they head straight north without seeing it. Then we can come up behind them. What do ye think Easeis?"

"Ok", replies Easeis.

"We'll let them think they are getting the jump on everyone at the camp and ambush them from behind. Good a plan as any I guess.", Koram states.

The cart is stopped with Easeis and Koram ready with cantrip and heavy crossbow, respectively. The guttural voices continue for a few moments after the cart is stopped and then they all stop talking.

Thinking the approaching enemies may have heard something, Easeis says loudly in goblin, "Stop here while I take a leak. Big haul on that last group."

After moment or two you hear some muttering and one of the unseen enemies laughs.
One shouts from up ahead, "Gangrat, is that you? Where the fuck is everyone? We've been waiting for hours!"

Easeis, in goblin, "Stupid town sent some sell-swords, we've got a whole load of new gear up at the camp. We're just cleaning up after the spiders. Head on up."

Your response is a healthy guffaw. "Spiders!" More laughing. "Oh yeah, I love that bit. We're 'ungry - get a move on, yeah? The bridge is unmanned."

"On it!", Easeis shouts back in goblin.

From the position behind the cart in the bushes, Easeis and Koram see figures emerge from the road ahead coming from the east.

Koram is looking at Easeis in confusion and shrugs as if to say, "What in Moradin's chamber pot are you on about?"

Easeis again in goblin, "Ugh, I shouldn't have ate that fish. This is going to be a minute."

The group of humanoids appears about 80 feet up the road from Koram and Easeis at the intersection. From the crossroad, they are about 200 feet from the camp. They are still taking their time sauntering down the road without a care in the world, but they are headed north. Six of them. Tough to be sure, but it looks like a pair each, Hobgoblins (with whom you have been shouting across the forest with), Gnolls and Orcs. The two hobgoblins appear to be doing most of the talking/bitching. Sometimes one of the orcs chimes in, but that usually results in a slap from one of the Gnolls. They are in your view for just a few moments.

Easeis asks, "Koram, is your crossbow ready? If you aim high, you should be able to shoot all the way to the camp. Fire some shots high up and see if we can alert the camp by raining bolts on them."

Easeis and Koram reckon that the humanoids banter will be audible from the camp in about a minute or so, assuming the remaining members of the group aren't making so much noise they can't hear them coming. Some noise would give them a warning that something is up.

Easeis, jokingly? says, "Maybe you'll accidentally kill Eilo with a warning shot." chuckle.

Koram thinks, strange sense of humor on that Easeis fella, but still a good guy. Koram fires two bolts from his crossbow, doing his best from memory to arc them towards the front right and left face of the palisade wall.

Koram says, "Really hope they heard those shots or at least the conversation coming their way. The way things have been going, I'm just glad I didn't shoot myself in the hand."

Easeis jokes, "Please, Eilo is sobbing into her cake, Dour is taking a nap, and Kismet is talking to a leaf."

Koram chuckles, then replies, "Maybe Magar will be paying attention. The noise might interrupt his spell book time."

Dour, Eilo, Kismet and Magar are going about business in the palisade camp, cleaning up bodies, looting, eating breakfast cake. Koram and Easeis have been gone for about an hour.

Easeis and Koram set off behind the humanoid enemies staying about 90 to 100 feet back, Koram trailing a bit behind Easeis, because of loud metal armor.

Easeis whispers back to Koram, "With your steady aim, we'll assume our compatriots are on alert. We can sandwich the bandits if they don't surrender. Don't engage until our friends inside the walls have."

Koram whispers back, "Not sure on the steady aim, but either way, we can hope they heard the bolts or the bandit scum yapping. Plan sounds good to me."

As the enemies get closer to the camp, Easeis and Koram move closer, and close the gap, but still no closer than 60 feet.

Easeis says to Koram, "Don't want to take the chance of drawing them away from the camp, because you are slow."

"Yes, yes I am.", Koram replies with a grin. "Ideally, they get attacked by everyone still in the camp, or we see them stop because they realize something is wrong, and at that point 60 feet or so is perfect. One good rush to get to them."

While Eilo is flitting around the camp thinking, she hears a snap, rustle and thunk outside the camp. It sounded like a fast moving object ripping through the tree canopy. She stops to listen and hears another similar sound, this time with a resonating thud of an arrow or bolt striking a tree trunk. A moment later, everyone in turn hears faint voices coming from the road south of the camp. Initially, everyone assumes it's your returning companions, but after a moment or two, you are able to discern three or four distinct voices, all speaking in a language you don't understand.

Eilo flits around to everyone and says, “Something is happening, there are weird voices, not Koram or Easeis, and I think someone just shot an arrow at us.”
She then flies up and peeks her tiny fairy eyeballs out above the palisade to see if she can see anything. About 100’ down the road, Eilo sees six figures, two each, hobgoblin, orc and gnoll, walking toward the camp, chatting casually amongst themselves. In whatever languages they are speaking - the two hobgoblins are doing most of the talking.

Brows furrowed, Kismet watches as Eilo flies off. ”Dour, Magar, something is coming, quick…crouch down and hide! Get ready for anything!”

In a higher-than-usual voice, Eilo cries loudly, “Please, you’ve taken everything! Master Jesper will pay handsomely for our return! Oww, these ropes are so tight!” Cries cries cries.

The approaching group stops at Eilo's outburst, just for a moment, before continuing for the camp. One of the hobgoblins calls out in Common, “Ho, in the camp! What are you twats doing?! Hank will have your hides when he gets back - and get a move on! The bridge is empty!”.

The enemies are 50’ away, and at this point, Easeis and Koram have closed to within 50 to 60 feet.

Eilo notices that as the group starts walking again the two orcs are moving a little more slowly than the other four- hanging back a little, and can see they are now closely eyeing the wall, looking for whomever should be there.

Eilo cries louder, “Please, it’s cold in the rain, please just give me back my clothes.” wails wails wails

The enemies are at 20’ from the camp entrance, and they are slowing down, seeming to be wary. One of them shouts over the wall again. “Why aren’t their eyes on the wall? What are you mutts….?”

Before the hobgoblin finishes his thought, the two orcs hanging back apparently have another idea and bolt.

At which, the hobgoblin sighs dramatically, “Not again.” He turns to the gnolls and orders them, “Run those two idiots down!”

Easeis and Koram see the two orcs running straight at them balls out, but it appears they are running from the two gnolls right behind them, and not actually charging to attack.

Easeis says to Koram, "Look, those gnolls are bloodthirsty thugs chasing down the orcs." He then adds in goblin, "Orcs, earn your freedom by helping us kill the gnolls! We've already cleared the camp. Join us in dispatching what is left." At the same time he casts a ray of frost at the closest gnoll.

One orc keeps running as if Easeis and Koram aren't even there. The other one stops up short, turns to face the gnolls and draws his weapon. He barks a few words until you hear, “goblin?” It seems like he is confused and trying to find a common language.

Koram yells in Orcish, "Kill the gnoll scum!"

Easeis yells in goblin, "We've cleared the camp, help us finish this."

The orc shouts back asking, "How do I know you won’t kill me anyway?”. His weapon still drawn, and still facing the gnolls. He adds, "I’m no match for these two."

Koram fires a crossbow bolt at the same gnoll Easeis is targeting.

Easeis replies in goblin, "For whatever it is worth, you have my word." He also yells in Common, "Death from above!"

Koram growls in Orcish, ""Yer best chance is to support us against the gnolls or we steamroll you along with them!"

Easeis smiles and says to Koram, "You know I have no idea what you're saying."

Koram, with a belly laugh, quickly translates everything he yelled so far in Orc for Easeis, "I was just winging it since I didn't understand what you were yellin either."

As the fighting starts, Easeis says, "Wanna know a secret? I don't know when I learned Goblin!"

Koram chuckles, "That's great! I only studied Orcish for a couple of years. Might be yelling some kind of recipe for cake."

The orc says to Easeis and Koram in goblin and orcish, “I don’t speak Common.”

Easeis replies in Goblin, "Our compatriots don't speak goblin and orcish. There's a lot of translation happening."


End Session 11

383 XP awarded - Welcome to level 3, but not before we complete a long rest. Have to finish the battle with the 2 hobgoblins and 2 gnolls with 1 orc ally (the second orc fled).

[Koram]

Session 12 - 09/09/2022 - "Battle Against the Returning Humanoid Bandits and Travels Take the Party to the Wailing Halls"


DM : Lasarian
Party: Baiz - Dour Warmfury - Mountain Dwarf Fighter/Champion - Mason's and Smith's Tools
Talo - Easeis - Human - Sorcerer/Spell Void - Dice Set and Thieves' Tools
Stel - Eilo - Fairy - Warlock/Celestial - Flute
Rox - Kismet of the Woods - Wood Elf Druid/Circle of the Land (Forest) - Herbalism Kit
Khaie - Magar - Grey Elf Wizard/School of Evocation - Herbalism Kit
Kor - Koram Orchammer - Hill Dwarf Cleric/Life Domain - Mason's, Cartographer's and Smith's Tools - Herbalism Kit


*Pick up at the start of the battle with returning bandits, two hobgoblins and two gnolls, with Easeis and Koram having convinced one orc to assist the party while the second orc fled.*

Easeis and Koram attacking the gnolls convinced one orc to remain and battle the gnolls and hobgoblins, while the second orc fled the area. Koram drops his heavy crossbow and draws his war hammer and shield, advancing into position side by side with the remaining orc. Easeis slides up behind and to the left of Koram near a rocky ridge, allowing him line of sight for spells, but preventing the gnolls from getting to him without going around Koram and the orc.

Meanwhile, Dour charges from the palisade entrance at the hobgoblins while Eilo breaks into the the air from behind the wall releasing an eldritch blast. Kismet and Magar rise up from behind the palisade wall to launch fire spells at the hobgoblins. Knowing that everyone is injured and the party is basically out of resources, lends a desperation to the party's attacks and spells. The casters, flying out of reach and protected by the palisade unleash their magics on the hobgoblins, and Dour repeatedly rains axe strikes on the shocked creatures. One falls to and eldritch blast, the second a few moments later, struck by fire from Kismet and Magar, and a final wicked axe blow from Dour.

Koram and the orc engage the gnolls with Easeis casting rays of frost through every opening. After seeing the hobgoblins fall, Easeis yells to the gnolls that the hobgoblins and all their other allies are dead, giving them one chance to surrender or be killed. Both gnolls surrender, are disarmed and taken prisoner by the party. Easeis and Koram speak to the orc who states that he was a fisherman, the orc that fled, a weaver. Both were pressed into service by the bandits as they gathered strength traveling up the Wild Coast from the Pomarj. He swears that he just wants to return to his simple life. Easeis and Koram tell him to go and he wastes no time fleeing south.

The party regroups, recovers the wagon and brings the gnoll prisoners back inside the palisade camp.

The gnolls are secured to the wagon wheels so they cannot move while the group sets up a watch schedule and finally manages to get some much needed rest. In the middle of the night, Easeis speaks to the gnolls while on watch, removes his glove to show them something on his hand and then releases the gnolls, telling them to flee the region and head south. One hesitates, perhaps thinking to try and overpower Easeis, but the other shakes his head, apparently in fear of whatever Easeis revealed to them. Kismet, also awake, although Easeis may have been unaware she is, witnesses the exchange, but chooses to keep silent and allow the gnolls to depart.

***LEVEL 3 after long rest***

As the group rises in the morning to find the gnolls gone, a conversation about them being released begins amongst the party. The conversation is interrupted by a yelp from Eilo as she begins erratically flying around the group.

"What's happened!", she cries. "I smell like rotting fish!!!".

The rest of the party really hadn't noticed this until Eilo pointed it out, but now that she has stated it, they do notice Eilo's freshly baked brownie smell has been replaced by the rather pungent odor of rotting fish. Eilo flies off to a nearby tree sobbing about this strange occurrence. She takes out one of her small razor sharp daggers and begins shaving her head in despair.

Thinking Eilo might need some time alone, the group returns to their conversation about the gnolls. Easeis logically explains several reasons that he set the gnolls loose; the group is not technically the law in these lands, they don't need to be babysitting captives, two unarmed gnolls would not be a huge threat to the area, and when the party held Gern previously, it it didn't go so well. No one is really thrilled about releasing the gnolls, but everything Easeis says makes perfect sense. The group realizes that the orcs and therefore possibly Weezle and Dweezle were only partially invested in this operation and may have been forced into servitude by Hank, the bandit leader.

Koram, always positive, claps his hands together and stands up, "No sense dwelling on it. What's done is done and two gnolls won't make a difference as Easeis said. Let's get finished cleaning this place up, divide up the spoils, and load up to move out."

The group divides up the coin from the battles, several hundred copper and silver plus a few gold each, and decides on who will best make use of the remaining treasure. The party places the 5 small gemstones and 2 unidentified potions in the bag of holding, and decides Koram will hang onto the bag as sort of a group repository for extra items and loot. Koram also asks to keep the 4 iron ingots for use in crafting on upcoming holy days to Moradin. Magar takes the Jump scroll either for direct use or later inscribing into his spell book. Dour takes the potion of healing to replace one of those he has used in the recent battles. The trade goods, all weapons, armor and equipment from the bandits are loaded into the wagon. Eilo returns from the tree, her freshly shaved head starkly reminding everyone of her stress over what might be happening to her.

Easeis leads the group in digging two small graves for Weezle and Dweezle, Eilo placing some of her remaining cake with the goblins corpses. The rest of the bandit bodies are left for the scavengers south of the palisade near the three way intersection of the road and trail.

Kismet spends some time consoling Eilo as the party turns the wagon around and heads back out onto the road. The party turns east at the intersection just south of the palisade camp and soon comes across a massive hollowed out tree that forms a bridge over a roaring stream. Evidence of recent occupation around the bridge and what they have been told tells the group that this is the place where the highwaymen were waylaying travelers. It is thankfully unoccupied and quiet now, a hopeful indication that the bandit threat is vanquished.

Two uneventful days later, the party arrives back at Lockswell Manor. The guards recognize the party and immediately escort them into the Manor while a runner is sent to notify Marten that the group has returned. Shortly after the group settles in, Marten enters and greets the group with a hopeful expression on his face.

"Seeing that you have all made it back safely, I hope this means that you have good news?", Marten inquires.

The party fills him in on the recent occurrences at the Grove of the Archdruid, Beltander, Tricaster and the palisade camp. Marten is definitely pleased with the outcome, although saddened by the loss of the "Giants" adventuring group and the tragedy in Beltander. He is not overjoyed that some of the humanoids escaped or were released, but takes the party's word that it was the best course of action under the circumstances. He agrees that killing them in cold blood after they laid down their arms would not have been the way he would want things in his lands. He tells the group that the first of his hired reinforcements have arrived, so his shortage of manpower is slowly improving, and he expects additional arrivals soon. That being said, he is more than happy to purchase all of the confiscated equipment the party has acquired as reserve equipment for his growing guard forces. He also asks about the trade goods, but the group informs him that they intend to use them to assist Tricaster. Marten happily pays the party 900gp for completing his two tasks, stating he will send Helden his 100gp cut, and also informs them that he received a missive from Helden. Apparently, the new Lord of the Wailing Halls is still desperately seeking capable assistance in a matter of some importance. Helden asked Marten that, when the party returned, they be informed of this task. Helden sent the Lord of the Wailing Halls a response that he had agents completing tasks in the region, and that he would send them to Wailing Halls as soon as they were available.

The party spends the night at the Manor, divides up their pay, and relaxes a bit before retiring.

Eilo recites a letter quietly from where she is sitting,
"Dear Rainbow Unicorn,
Are you angry with me? Did you make me smell like rotten fish? I didn't think I would miss the smell of brownies so much, but my friends all think I'm disgusting now."

Perhaps trying to distract Eilo from her depression or simply out of curiosity, Easeis asks, "Is that a title, or a literal Rainbow Unicorn?"

Eilo, perking up just a bit, replies, "I don’t speak her name aloud, only when I speak to her in my dreams. But she is a Rainbow Unicorn."

"Why are you here instead of in whatever Faerie realm is your home?", Easeis continues.

Eilo answers, "I need to prove my worth before I can fight the greater evil in Old Woods. I was sent here to prepare myself."

Easeis responds, "The only person you need to prove anything to is yourself. External validation is toxic."

"I owe my life to the Unicorn. I go where she sends me.", Eilo says.

Apparently done, both fall back into silence and their own thoughts.

The next morning, the group re-provisions (including some baked goods), and then sets out for the return trip to Tricaster the next morning. Apparently, the groups recent actions in clearing some of the troubles from the region has paid off. The three day return trip to Tricaster is completely uneventful.

As the party approaches Tricaster, things seem to be pretty much the same as when they left here a few days ago. There are still refugees camped outside the walls, but the guards are more friendly and open as they approach and recognize the group. The guards send an runner and a short while later, Tomland appears at the gate, a smile on his face, seeing the party returned and healthy. Koram tells Tolmand that he has prayed to Moradin, cast the detect poison and disease spell, and can assure that the party is not carrying the Red Death. The group also informs Tolmand of the events that happened with the highwaymen, as he invites them to head for Earnest's Inn to continue their discussions. The group tells him that there are now actual, not fake, supplies in the wagon Tolmand loaned the party, that were taken from the highwaymen. At a suggestion from Easeis, the group has decided that everyone would like to donate them to Tricaster's recovery efforts. He expresses joy at this offer and relief at the news that the bandits are no longer an organized threat. He is wary that two orcs escaped and that the two gnolls surrendered and were released after laying down their arms. As the group passes through the gates, he informs the guards to be on the lookout just in case and to have the wagon and supplies brought into town. He is being careful, but passes no judgement on the party's decision to release the gnoll prisoners, too thankful that the road is open to Lockswell Manor again. He is also pleased to hear that Marten is getting reinforcements and may be able to begin patrolling the roads again soon. As news spreads about what has happened, the mood in Tricaster seems to improve, and many of the townsfolk come to the Inn so they can meet and express thanks to the party for helping the town. The town's healer/alchemist also shows up and offers to look at the two unidentified potions the party found as thanks for their helping Tricaster. She tells them that one is a Philter of Love and the other a Potion of Hill Giant Strength. The group decides to hold onto them for now and both are put back into the bag of holding. The Innkeeper, Earnest, offers the party free lodging for the night, and the group accepts, hoping for a night of rest in an actual bed and not camped on the road.

The next morning, the group bids farewell to the folks of Tricaster and gets on the road heading west to the village of Corusaith. Two days later, the group arrives in Corusaith, finding it destroyed, similar to Beltander. If there is a silver lining to the village being destroyed, it is that there appears to be no corruption here as there was in Beltander and it appears that the village simply could not hold out to the losses of the Red Death and was abandoned.

The group heads south from Corusaith towards Camp Adalorn which was the original final destination of the "Giants" adventuring group as they were checking the region for Helden. After two days of quiet travel, the party arrives at the remnants of Camp Adalorn on a small rising side road just off the main road that runs between Corusaith and the City of Narwell on the Wild Plains. It looks to have been a small fort with a palisade wall on the border between the Gnarley Forest and the Territory of Narwell, but is now abandoned.

The party, ignoring the main road south to Narwell, turns onto a smaller track heading west toward Wailing Halls. After a single easy day of walking, the party arrives at the stone walled holding known as Wailing Halls.

End Session 12 as the party enters through the gates.

[Koram]

Session 13 - 09/16/2022 - "Longest Shopping Trip Ever, the Fuzzies and the Barrows"


DM : Lasarian
Party: Baiz - Dour Warmfury - Mountain Dwarf Fighter/Champion - Mason's and Smith's Tools
Talo - Easeis - Human - Sorcerer/Spell Void - Dice Set and Thieves' Tools
Stel - Eilo - Fairy - Warlock/Celestial - Flute
Rox - Kismet of the Woods - Wood Elf Druid/Circle of the Land (Forest) - Herbalism Kit
Khaie - Magar - Grey Elf Wizard/School of Evocation - Herbalism Kit
Kor - Koram Orchammer - Hill Dwarf Cleric/Life Domain - Mason's, Cartographer's and Smith's Tools - Herbalism Kit


The party enters Wailing Halls and is immediately struck by something they have not seen in some time, a stronghold apparently thriving with life and commerce. Vendors are set up in stalls and buildings around the square adjacent to the inn. The party wanders around and visits merchants with various stock; potions, leather goods, knick knacks, tools, weapons, food-animal products, alcohol-refreshments and legendary-magical items. The group has not seen this kind of variety in available goods since their time in the Free City of Greyhawk. The group spends hours window shopping and trading with the vendors.

At the potion vendor, Victoria, they trade the Philter of Love and Potion of Hill Giant Strength for 7 potions of healing and a spare herbalism kit. Oliver, the legendary and magic item merchant has many items of interest, but all are very expensive, most out of the price range the group can afford. One item, however, piques everyone's interest, especially little Eilo. There is a Tan Bag of Tricks, which allows it's user to pull up to three random creatures per day, friendly to the user and their companions, on sale for 1000gp. Everyone pitches in some coin and the bag is purchased for Eilo, and this seems to cheer her up a bit from her recent depression. At the weapon merchant, Dour trades his battle axe and picks up a new two handed maul. Koram, having affixed his holy symbol emblem to the magical shield the group recovered in the battle at Beltander, sells his old shield. Dour and Eilo both purchase a few flasks of moonshine from the alcohol vendor. The group also resupplies their rations and feed for the mules, pony and Dour's newly purchased riding goat. Having spent the better part of the day shopping, the group finally speaks to one of the guards, and asks if he would notify Lord Varnas Wayland that Helden's agents have arrived.

The group waits a short time before a portly, well dressed noble approaches with a pair of guardsmen. He seems confident and somewhat haughty, but seems genuinely thankful that the group might be able to help with his troubles. He introduces himself as Lord Varnas Wayland and tells the group that since reclaiming the Wailing Halls, he has been attempting to make the surrounding lands safe again as well. The one area that has been a thorn in pacifying the region is east of the hold, and has become known as "The Grinder". It is just a short way from the Wailing Halls and its main features include a ruined tower in a field along with dozens of ancient barrows and burial mounds. It is also rumored that two well known adventurers, Rogahn and Zelligar, from about a century ago, had a hidden stronghold in the same area. Varnas tells the party that he has hired several groups to investigate the area and none have returned, thus the nickname "The Grinder". He offers the party 1,200gp if they can find and stop whatever danger the area holds. He also offers to host them for dinner and to put them up in the Inn. During negotiations, the party asks for some advance money and when the discussions break down a bit, Varnas becomes a bit more direct and all business. The invitation to dine with him disappears from the conversation, although he still arranges a room for the party at the inn and stable space for the groups animals, then he departs with his guards.

Everyone heads to the inn and gets set up in a large room, that appears to normally serve as a common room, but has been reserved solely for the party to use. The group settles in and has an evening meal before taking some personal time to gear up for the next day. Eilo happily pokes at the small fuzzballs inside her new Bag of Tricks before falling asleep snuggled partway into it. Kismet and Magar sit and discuss their differing approaches to magic. Koram kneels near his bed, apparently in prayer with his head bowed forward against the war hammer holy symbol emblem affixed to his shield. Dour is busy adjusting the leather wrapping on the grip of his new maul, testing and then re-wrapping to get the perfect heft. Easesis takes the opportunity to walk over and take Eilo's Book of Shadows that she left lying out next to where she fell asleep. Possibly to give Eilo an object lesson since she had just recently discussed being here instead of the Old Wood to learn and prepare for greater challenges? Kismet and Magar notice what he is doing, but not sure what to think, just look at each other curiously, and go back to their discussion.

Everyone eventually turns in and even though the party feels they should be safe here, they still take turns on watch. The night passes uneventfully, and in the morning the group begins making final preparations and packing for the trip to "The Grinder". Eilo wakes and happily notices that the smell of rotting fish has evaporated, although the scent of brownies has not returned. She spins in the air happily and then starts gathering her gear up along with the rest of the party. She then begins zipping around in panic when she cannot find her Tome.

"Hey, everyone! I don't smell like rotting fish anymore, but it looks like my Tome is gone!", she exclaims in a combination of happiness and confusion.

While she is looking under beds and pillows, Easeis surreptitiously hands Eilo's tome to Magar and says, "An object lesson for our little companion. Give it back when the time seems right."

Eilo suddenly stops and yells, "I know what happened! One of the little fuzzies must have eaten my tome while I slept in the bag with them last night." She begins rummaging through the bag of tricks. Eilo pulls a fuzzball from the bag tossing it onto her bed and says, "It was you, wasn't it?". In the next instant there is a giant hyena sitting on the bed. "Parsley, give me back my tome this instant!", and then after ruffling through the hyena's fur, "Oh, you don't have it." Eilo, looking a bit flustered, peeks back into the Bag of Tricks. "Aha! It was you!", as another fuzzy is tossed out of the bag. This time a full grown tiger appears, and Eilo begins walking around ruffling through the tiger's fur.

Even though Koram is a dwarf, and not in any way claustrophobic, he begins to think that the room is getting a bit cramped, picks up his gear and heads outside to sit on the rim of the fountain outside the inn while snacking on some bread and cheese from his pack.

Eilo flies around the tiger and air stamps her foot in frustration. "You don't have it either!", she yells. Hands on her hips and her foot tapping in the air, she looks lost in thought.

Kismet advises Eilo that she needs to watch her purse, and sticks her nose back into her herbalism kit with a sigh, feeling bad for Eilo, but understanding the intended lesson.

Eilo flits over to Kismet and says in a slightly fearful voice, "Do you think my purse is cursed?"

Kismet whispers back, "No, but whenever you are in town you need to beware of would be thieves." Sniffs, "I'm so glad you don't smell anymore!"

"Well, if someone takes something, they must be in great need. I miss smelling like brownies though. Now I just smell like tiger.", replies Eilo.

Kismet replies, "Perhaps, but there could be pranksters about. I miss that smell as well, I AM glad you no longer smell of fish!", shakes her head, running her fingers through her auburn hair.

Magar makes a show of inspecting the giant hyena and tiger closely and then walks over to Eilo and Kismet, handing Eilo's Tome of Shadows back with a flourish. "Just needed a bit of wizard magic to get it back.", Magar professes.

"Thank you, Magar!", yelps Eilo, as Magar walks back over to finish gathering up his gear and trying not to laugh.

Dour looks on with a smirk and Easeis just nods in silence.

Eilo replies, "Thank you for the advice Kismet. Though now that I know what an amazing wizard Magar is I feel much safer. Did you see how he got my book back from inside the tiger and it wasn't dirty at all?"

Kismet smiles at Eilo, "Yes, I saw! That was a miracle, indeed!"

"I'm lucky to have such good friends!", as she hugs Kismet.

Kismet hugs Eilo right back, "You shall always have my friendship, little one."

"You can ride Parsley the hyena all day. He likes when you scratch behind his ears.", Eilo tells Kismet.

A smile touches Kisment's face, she climbs aboard Parsley, scratching the prickly hyena behind it's ears, "He's quite lovely! I can't wait to see what he can do in combat!"

The group causes quite an uproar as they head through the main room of the inn busy with the breakfast rush, Kismet atop a giant hyena and a full grown tiger padding along with the party. As the group exits the front door of the inn, Koram, alerted by the ruckus from inside the inn, has already hopped up from his seat on the edge of the fountain, brushing crumbs from his beard and chainmail. Koram chuckles, "Yup, about as I expected."

The group leaves the fortress heading east, turning heads all the way out the gate. After just a couple of hours, the party comes to an open field with a ruined tower in the northwest of the open ground. There are also low hillocks, some showing signs of being disturbed or excavated, and Koram verifies that the terrain here matches what is depicted on the group's map. The party agrees to start by investigating the ruined tower as the most recognizable landmark in the area. It doesn't take the group long to determine that the tower holds no secrets. It is fully collapsed with no evidence of any underground section buried in the rubble. There is evidence that much of the stone from the tower has been carted away, probably for use in other construction, and the remaining foundation has been used repeatedly over time as a campsite.

The party then heads to some of the X marks on the map, but find nothing but more disturbed barrows, and nothing of note. The group finally moves to an area northeast of the tower where the map shows a skull and crossbones. As the party spreads out and begins searching the area, both Magar and Eilo find apparently undisturbed stone barrow entrances covered in overgrowth. The group clears away brush at both locations and clears enough stone to see into the darkness of both locations. The entrance Magar found has stairs immediately inside that descend about 25 feet to a cut stone archway and door. The entrance Eilo found has a block and mortar tunnel ramping down and out of sight.

The group decides to check out the barrow Magar found first, since the stone door at the bottom of the stairs definitely seems intact from what the party can see.

End Session 13

[Koram]

Session 14 - 09/23/2022 - "The Dwarves Take a Beating"


DM : Lasarian
Party: Baiz - Dour Warmfury - Mountain Dwarf Fighter/Champion - Mason's and Smith's Tools
Talo - Easeis - Human - Sorcerer/Spell Void - Dice Set and Thieves' Tools
Stel - Eilo - Fairy - Warlock/Celestial - Flute
Rox - Kismet of the Woods - Wood Elf Druid/Circle of the Land (Forest) - Herbalism Kit
Khaie - Magar - Grey Elf Wizard/School of Evocation - Herbalism Kit
Kor - Koram Orchammer - Hill Dwarf Cleric/Life Domain - Mason's, Cartographer's and Smith's Tools - Herbalism Kit


The group decides to check out the barrow Magar found first, since the stone door at the bottom of the stairs definitely seems intact from what the party can see. The group descends the stairs and checks the door for any obvious signs that it has been opened recently, but there is nothing. Dour and Koram discuss the stonework and agree it is definitely at least a few centuries old, if not older and does not appear to be dwarven made. Easeis steps in and checks to see if there are any tripwires, pressure plates or other signs the door might be trapped, but finds nothing. Taking a deep breath, Dour and Koram combine to push open the iron door with a screech of ancient protesting hinges echoing in the silence. The dwarves stand shoulder to shoulder in the door preparing for an attack from the darkness with Easeis, Eilo, Kismet and Magar ready with their magics, and Eilo's hyena and tiger waiting patiently behind the group. After a few moments, everything remains quiet, so the party slowly moves west into a stone chamber immediately noticing a large stone statue at the center. The statue appears to represent a humanoid figure, but is worn with time and the exact features are difficult to make out. Strangely, the statue is not facing the entrance, as one might expect, but is facing west, directly away from the entrance, towards the remains of a rusted iron gate. There is also an iron gate to the north which appears to be intact. The group slowly crosses the room heading past the statue to the west, but everything remains quiet. The group steps up the what is left of the west gate, and can see that the gate appears to have been twisted and torn off it's hinges. The remnants of the gate indicate that the lock was designed to be used from the outside, coupled with the facing of the statue, it appears everything was designed to keep something locked inside the room to the west.

The party carefully moves into the room to the west, which is obviously a burial chamber with four sarcophagi, one in each corner of the chamber. Everyone fans out into the room, with the dwarves moving toward the northwest sarcophagus, Kismet towards the center of the room and Easeis, Eilo and Magar spread evenly around the chamber. Parsley the hyena and the tiger are ordered by Eilo to remain in the room with the statue to guard the party's backs. Dour and Koram begin to push the lid from the sarcophagus in the northwest corner, when the lid suddenly lurches open the rest of the way on its own, and a desiccated corpse rises from the blackness of it's resting place. The dwarves were both somewhat anticipating this, and at the same time not really ready when it happened. Dour launches an arcing overhead two handed strike with his new maul, but not being used to the heft of the weapon yet, misses and smashes a hunk out of the edge of the stone sarcophagus. Koram fares no better with his war hammer strike glancing the handle off the stone bouncing his shot wide. Easeis, Eilo, Kismet and Magar all move to position themselves to see the undead creature better and land a few stinging hits with their cantrips, but the creature rises up seemingly not very injured by the spells. Kismet orders her owl, CoCo, to begin doing flybys to distract the undead. Even though it is unarmed, it lashes out with both fists striking Dour twice and knocking him senseless. The party is shocked at Dour being knocked down in seconds, realizing that, whatever this undead is, it is definitely not a typical zombie like the group has faced before. Easeis, Kismet and Magar continue casting at the creature, landing hits that are definitely affecting it, but overall, it still seems unfazed. Koram casts cure wounds, and Eilo uses her healing light on Dour, taking the edge off the worst of his wounds and bringing him back to his senses. Dour rejoins the fight, landing a wicked hit to the undead, as it hits Koram with a crushing swing, staggering him almost to the point of blacking out. The casters all continue their magical attacks with the dwarves smashing away with maul and war hammer. Easeis and Magar, who are both fighting from positions near the southern side of the room, hear a noise coming from the southwest sarcophagus, and a few seconds later, that lid slides off to the floor with a crash. A second similar undead stands to join the fight. Eilo calls Parsley and the tiger from their guard positions and they move to join the fight. Magar falls back through the ruined gate to the east while launching another fire bolt at the first powerful zombie. Easeis takes a glancing hit from the second zombie, and steps back towards the gate as well, sending another ray of frost over the heads of the dwarves, striking the first zombie, while calling for the group to fall back to the gate. Eilo stays near to the ceiling and lands another eldritch blast, but the first zombie is still standing. Kismet, continuing to have CoCo do her best to distract the enemy, lands another produce flame and the zombie's shoulder briefly alights with fire before going out. The group realizes they are facing the toughest opponent they have met since beginning to travel together. The two stubborn dwarves continue hammering at the first zombie, since it is finally showing some signs of being affected by all the hits that it has taken so far. Koram slides to the north a couple of steps to allow Parsley room to engage, but catches a backhand from the zombie, knocking him out cold. The tiger advances on the second zombie, that has now risen from it's crypt, growling as it trades hits with the undead. Parsley and Dour manage to get strikes in on the first zombie, but Dour takes another solid hit in return, making him think maybe the suggestion from Easeis to fall back might be a good idea. He slaps his maul into his palm adjusting his grip, deciding to hold his ground while the others fall back first. Eilo flits over and uses healing light on Koram allowing him to regain consciousness, and using the sarcophagus to steady himself, he stumbles to his feet. Easeis and Magar continue to focus their magic on the first zombie from the statue room to the east through the ruined gate, while Easeis continues to call for everyone to fall back to the choke point. The combined physical hits from Dour and Parsley, along with the spells from Easeis, Eilo, Kismet and Magar, and the diving passes of CoCo, finally cause the first zombie to slump over and fall to the floor from where it stood in it's sarcophagus.

The second zombie has battered the tiger bloody and the cat is definitely on the brink of death. Dour and Parsley, both bruised and bleeding, move to assist the tiger as it drops to floor after taking another hit from the second zombie. Koram casts cure wounds on himself and also moves to help, but notices that the lid of the sarcophagus in the northeast corner is shaking. Easeis, Eilo and Kismet also hear the lid rattling in the northeast corner of the room. Kismet falls back into the statue chamber with Easeis and Magar, while all three now focus their magics on the second zombie. Dour takes a pair of strikes from the second undead and falls to his hands and knees, just as Koram steps up to engage. Instead of striking the zombie, Koram's hand glows with light the color of a blazing forge as he touches Dour on the shoulder, burning away some of his wounds. Parsley lands a solid strike on the second undead, drawing it's attention briefly from the dwarves. Eilo has now fallen back to just above Easeis and Kismet at the gate, with Magar just behind them near the statue, and they all continue landing some strikes with fire, frost and eldritch magic on the zombie. The dwarves each both take one final swing at the second zombie before falling back, but only Dour lands a glancing hit. The lid of the northeast sarcophagus falls to the floor with an echoing crash, and a third powerful zombie rises. The second zombie lands a solid strike on Parsley, killing the very effective giant hyena, and just as the dwarves are moving out of reach, the undead slams it's fist against the back of Koram's mail coif, crushing him to the floor. Eilo is still casting through her sobbing tears over Parsley and the tiger, refusing to throw the last fuzzy from the bag of tricks, because it might get killed too. Magar and Kismet both send fire streaking at the zombie standing over Koram. Easeis begins casting, a shimmering in the air appears above Koram, and then pulses as vortex warp takes effect, transporting the unconscious dwarf from the floor at the feet of the zombie to just behind the party near the statue. The zombies begin to shamble forward as Kismet reaches down to cast cure wounds on Koram, and Eilo, still crying (in a strangely Eilo-like, and at the same time, not Eilo-like voice), grabs the third fuzzball from the Bag off Tricks and throws it between the two zombies. The fuzzy expands into the shape of a jackal, and it takes a nip at the third zombie that is only about ten feet from the gate. Dour takes position in the gateway between the two rooms, draws in a deep breath, feeling a second wind, making his wounds seem less severe. The second zombie shambles forward, but has been slowed by a ray of frost from Easeis, and can't make it to the ruined gate, while the third zombie turns and slams both fists into the jackal, killing it instantly. Magar and Eilo also continue casting cantrips at the second zombie, which is definitely looking fairly battered. Kismet turns from healing Koram and reaches out her druidic magic to the roots of plants in the earth below the zombies. Suddenly, with a surge of magic, plants erupt from the ground, which is glowing with a pure green light, and the growth entangles both of the zombies' legs. Seeing this, Dour sets the head of his maul on the floor, allowing him to unlimber his crossbow, expertly load it in one smooth action, and fire a shot into the second zombie. The combined strikes have staggered the second zombie, although the third undead is uninjured and tears itself free in seconds from the plants that held it. Koram casts cure wounds to clear up some of his most severe injuries and limps up to Dour's left in the gate opening, the dwarves now shoulder to shoulder blocking the choke point.

Koram, taking advantage of the second zombie still being entangled and easier to hit, unleashes a bolt of radiant light that sears through it, finally dropping the already severely damaged creature to the floor. As the third and final zombie lurches into range of the dwarves, Dour lands a wicked maul strike on it. Easeis, Eilo, and Magar all focus their magic on the final target causing it to stagger under the magical onslaught. Dour takes a pair of brutal hits in return from the last zombie, blood flowing freely from under his helm and dripping from his beard, and he looks as if he is on the verge of collapse. Kismet steps up behind him, touching the back of his shoulder as green light envelops her hand, healing a few of Dour's worst wounds. Koram lands a war hammer strike, distracting the zombie from Dour for a moment, taking a hit in return and deflecting a second with his shield. Both dwarves, completely battered and bloody, exchange another round of strikes with the zombie. Dour lands another massive hit with his maul, and Koram swings, but misses and staggers directly into an overhand fist from the zombie, slamming him to the ground once again. Magar expends the last of his non-cantrip magic and catapults a large stone from the floor into the zombie. Easeis, Eilo and Kismet, having expended all but their cantrips, launch a ray of frost, an eldritch blast and a ball of produced flame into the final zombie. Covered in smashed open blunt wounds, and patches of blackened and frozen flesh, it finally slumps to the floor.

Eilo and Kismet expend the last of their restorative magic to heal the worst of Koram's injuries, allowing him to regain consciousness and wobble to his feet. The party takes stock of their condition. With both dwarves still pretty beat up, and all magic except cantrips expended, the party decides to exit the barrow, close the door, and take a short rest outside.

End Session 14

900 XP each for the brutal undead combat

[Koram]

Session 15 - 10/21/2022 - "Party Spends WAAAAAYYY Too Much Time Checking a Dimensional Door"

No Sessions 9/30 - 10/7 - 10/14

DM : Lasarian
Party: Baiz - Dour Warmfury - Mountain Dwarf Fighter/Champion - Mason's and Smith's Tools - Autopilot by Koram
Talo - Easeis - Human - Sorcerer/Spell Void - Dice Set and Thieves' Tools
Stel - Eilo - Fairy - Warlock/Celestial - Flute
Rox - Kismet of the Woods - Wood Elf Druid/Circle of the Land (Forest) - Herbalism Kit
Khaie - Magar - Grey Elf Wizard/School of Evocation - Herbalism Kit
Kor - Koram Orchammer - Hill Dwarf Cleric/Life Domain - Mason's, Cartographer's and Smith's Tools - Herbalism Kit


After a short rest, the party was still a bit battered, but decided to re-enter the barrow and poke around a bit more. The group returned through the statue chamber to the site of the recent battle. A search of the now fully dead zombie corpses turned up nothing. Everyone readied themselves for the worst as the dwarves pushed the lid off the last unopened sarcophagus in the SE corner. As the lid smashed to the floor, everyone prepared to attack, but the tomb had no corpse within it. Rooting around in the sarcophagi turned up some coin and a single gemstone in each, quartz, star rose quartz, citrine and moonstone. A thorough search turned up no secret doors, panels or openings in the walls or beneath the tombs.

Satisfied there is nothing further in the west room, everyone headed back past the statue to the northern gate. This gate still looked fully intact, but was not locked and opened with a squeal of rusted iron. There was a single sarcophagus against the east wall that appeared more ornate than those in the west room. The dwarves set up and began to push open the lid, when, once again, it started to slide open by itself.

"By Moradin's Hammer, here we go again", Koram sighed, as he and Dour readied themselves to get bashed around again.

The undead that sat up was obviously once an elf, but it rose in a slower more controlled way than the others had. Easeis picked up on this and instead of launching a spell, he instead held his hands palms out to the creature, gave a small bowing nod, and stepped back while trying to convey that there was no need to fight.

Seeing this reaction from Easeis, and taking a cue from him, the dwarves also stood ready, but did not attack. Eilo, Kismet and Magar also followed suit, and the undead elf simply turned to look at the party while saying something in an unknown tongue.

Eventually, Magar was able to pick out some of the phrases and inflections the undead was using, and determined that it was speaking an ancient form of the elven language not used in over a 1,000 years. Haltingly, at first, and then with more surety, Magar began to converse with the ancient undead elf. He told the group that his name is Anunkara, and after some discussion, stated that he would prefer not to fight, and would simply like the group to return the coin and gemstone burial goods to their resting places, and then leave him in peace. The party agreed and Koram offered to perform a ceremony to reconsecrate the outer door once the party has sealed it. Anankara seemed pleased with this, and in return, offered his blessing to the party. He cast some longer lasting form of the Bless spell on everyone in the group before lying back down and pulling the lid to his sarcophagus shut. Everyone returned to the western chamber and placed all the coins and gemstones back in the four sarcophagi, and then left the barrow, sealing the door behind them.

Having completed their investigations of the barrow found by Magar, the group moved on to the second undisturbed mound located by Eilo. The outer door to this barrow also appeared to have not been opened in a very long time. It was not locked and with some minor effort the door opened. The group descended into a tunnel with a door on the east wall. As the dwarves opened this interior door, they noticed that the stonework of the door and the frame appeared to be of more recent construction than the rest of the barrow. The eastern door opened into what appeared to be another burial chamber with four sarcophagi, and appeared undisturbed. As the party investigated this chamber, Dour and Koram discussed that something seemed off about the stonework in this entire chamber, both having a background in masonry. Eventually the dwarves figured out that everything in this chamber had been constructed much more recently, perhaps in the last century or so, but was made to look much older. As the search continued, a secret door was discovered in the NE corner of the room on the east wall, and it was also discovered that the sarcophagi were also part of the ruse and appeared to have never been used. With the time spent in the previous barrow and searching this one, the party decided it would be a good time to set camp and get a real rest to recover from their wounds and regain used spells. The party slid the stone sarcophagus' lids over to use as giant doorstops for some additional safety as they rested, but still set a watch just in case.

*Long Rest Completed*

After everyone awoke, healed and refreshed from yesterday's brutal combat, the group agreed to further investigate the secret door. There appeared to be no traps and the door opened easily, revealing a hallway to the east. There had been no attempt to even try to make the stonework in this hallway appear aged in any way. The construction was obviously newer than the age of many of the barrows in the area. Down the hall to the east, the party could see daylight coming from the end of the tunnel, and everyone knew something strange was going on. The group should be at least 20' below ground and the tunnel definitely shouldn't be able to open directly to daylight. The party carefully approached the end of the tunnel and noticed a shimmering haze across the end of the tunnel. Though the haze, they saw what appeared to be a hill with a cave opening opposite the tunnel entrance.

Concerned that the scenery through the haze looked nothing like what it should, the group began experimenting. The group tied a rope to a crowbar and threw it through the shimmering field. It landed just outside with a clang, apparently unharmed, and the group was able to simply pull it back through.

Kismet then had CoCo the owl fly through and although it appeared that CoCo was fine, Kismet felt her connection broken as if the owl had traveled too far from her. She tried calling for CoCo to return, but the owl simply flew to a nearby tree and settled into a cozy spot for a nap.

Eilo then volunteered to tie a rope around her waist and fly out through the haze to check out the area on the other side of the opening. She took out a vial of her moonshine and sprinkled it along as she flew through the haze with no apparent ill effects and zipped around a bit checking out the hillside across the way. She ignited the moonshine with a flash of prestidigitation and looked back with a surprised look on her face as the fire raced towards what appeared to be a solid hillside with a rope sticking out of it.

"Hello?!?! Are you all buried in the hill?", she asked.

To everyone in the tunnel, it looked like Eilo was talking directly at them from a few feet outside the tunnel. Eilo flinched as the group responded that they were fine and right in front of her.

Elio replied, "Well, from out here it looks like the hill covered you all up and grew grass so no one could find you."

Having said that, Eilo flew a bit closer and reached out to touch the hillside and her hand passed right through the ground as if it wasn't there. From inside the group watched Eilo slowly fly closer to the entrance and stick her hand through the haze. The pulled the rope and Eilo popped back through the shimmering portal again with no ill effects. The group discussed things a bit more, and eventually everyone basically said, "This is nuts.", and walked through the portal.

The group was now all safely outside and began looking around, while CoCo the owl immediately flew back to Kismet. After a short while they spotted the ruined tower off to the west perhaps a half mile away, far further that it should have been. Guessing the hidden portal was some short range portal used as a hidden entrance/exit, the group decided to move onwards. While the group began inspecting the cave in the opposite hillside from the hidden portal, Koram updated the group's map with the approximate location of the portal and cave entrance. The party tore up some of the grass to mark the spot, in addition to the light scorching from the burned moonshine trail, where the hidden portal was located.

The party headed to the cave entrance across from the hidden portal, and carefully moved into the unfinished tunnel beyond. After a short distance, the cave walls changed to a noticeably worked stone passageway ending at a door. The party moved through the door, and entered a passage heading north with some openings visible to either side.

The group approached the first pair of openings to the east and west, and discovered that the openings were simply short dead end alcoves. The first pair of alcoves each contained a tapestry on the back wall, one depicting what appeared to be the tower below to the west before it was destroyed and the other a hilltop with a large tree at the summit. The second pair of alcoves also contained tapestries, this time of what appeared to be a wizard and a fighter, possibly Roghan and Zelligar. When the group approached the third pair of alcoves, they saw a stone face in each, both of which magically animated and began speaking. The east stone carving warned the group about entering and shouted to "warn the masters". The western face told the eastern to "shut up, the fools won't listen, and will enter where they shouldn't anyway".

A short distance beyond the third pair of alcoves, there was a set of 3 stone stairs leading upwards. At the top of the stairs, the tunnel continued north and additional tunnels to the east and west. At the top of the stairs and in the intersection were the remains of 5 bodies that have all been hacked apart. They appear to have been slaughtered several weeks ago, and it appeared to be the remains of a human, halfling, dwarf, and two gnolls. There was also a set of bloody footprints heading away up the north corridor.

The party decided to head west at the intersection and followed the passage a short distance distance before it turned to the south. As the party headed south, the dwarves were taking a bit of time inspecting the stonework of the walls, and noticed something off about the eastern wall. A more dedicated search, revealed a secret door, and when it was opened, the party found themselves back in the second western alcove behind the tapestry of Zelligar. The party continued south, then the passage turned west, and a short distance away there was a door to the north while the hall continued to the west. The group checked out the door and it seemed free of traps and was not locked. The dwarves set up and carefully opened the door with all the casters ready just behind them. The door opened into another intersection of 3 hallways. There was a long tunnel heading west that turned north, a shorter one heading east then also turning north, and one heading directly north away from the door. The north hallway appeared to end in some kind of chamber lit with a multi-colored glow, and the group could also see what appeared to be a humanoid figure facing away from them and sort of swaying in place.

The party decided to check the short hall to the east and ensure that nothing could come up behind them if they headed to the chamber in the north. The party headed east and peeked around the corner to the north, seeing the hallway dead end after a short distance with a door on the west wall. The party moved up and checked the door, finding no traps, and that it was unlocked. The dwarves once again set up with the casters behind them and opened the door into a rectangular north-south chamber. The room contained the remains of a double row of benches heading north, stopping just short of a raised dais with a lectern or stand of some kind on it, leading the group to believe this was some type of meeting hall or auditorium at one time. On the north wall behind the lectern were 4 banners, one each in a solid color, red, green, blue and yellow. A search of the room revealed nothing else of interest in the chamber, so the group headed back to the intersection, then headed north towards the strange humanoid figure and colorfully lit room beyond.

End Session 15

100 XP each for negotiation with Anaunkara

[Koram]

Session 16 - 10/28/2022 - "Eilo's Magical Happy Fuzzy Fairyland!!!, for about a minute."


DM : Lasarian
Party: Baiz - Dour Warmfury - Mountain Dwarf Fighter/Champion - Mason's and Smith's Tools
Talo - Easeis - Human - Sorcerer/Spell Void - Dice Set and Thieves' Tools
Stel - Eilo - Fairy - Warlock/Celestial - Flute
Rox - Kismet of the Woods - Wood Elf Druid/Circle of the Land (Forest) - Herbalism Kit
Khaie - Magar - Grey Elf Wizard/School of Evocation - Herbalism Kit
Kor - Koram Orchammer - Hill Dwarf Cleric/Life Domain - Mason's, Cartographer's and Smith's Tools - Herbalism Kit


The party headed north towards the strange humanoid figure and colorfully lit room beyond, and as they drew closer, they realized the glow was coming from all kinds of bioluminescent fungi. The party called out to the figure and as it turned, they realized it was an rotting undead creature covered in fungus. Three other similar undead rounded the corner and all began shuffling slowly down the corridor towards the party. Dour and Koram lined up shoulder to shoulder in the corridor and the party's casters begin raining eldritch blast, ray of frost, produce flame and fire bolt cantrips on the approaching undead. Dour pulled a hand axe a threw it into the lead zombie in one smooth motion. Koram focused and a small floating point of blue light grew into a glowing war hammer slamming into the undead. The first fungus zombie dropped before getting close, and the second took a pounding from all the spells and also dropped. Dour advanced a short way and slammed his maul into the third undead, and it was also hit by a fusillade of fire, frost, eldritch energy, spiritual hammer and toll the dead. The fourth zombie suffered a similar fate and the group did not suffer any injuries.

Everyone carefully advanced and could just barely make out all types of glowing mushrooms and fungi covering the ceiling, walls and floor of the room. Eilo zipped ahead with glee seeing all the varied colored lights covering every fuzzy surface. She was in her magical happy fuzzy fairyland. As she entered the room ahead of the group, she made out what appeared to be stone formations to the north and west that may have been the remnants of two pools. This room reminded her of a super amazing fungal garden with thousands of types of glowing mushrooms covering every surface. The group heard the sounds of happy discovery from Eilo as she flew out of their line of sight. Eilo was just closing on the northern end of this beautiful place as several small mushrooms and one giant one moved. As she looked on in wide eyed amazement, the giant mushroom creature smacked her, and she let out a cry of disbelief. How could such a pretty place all of a sudden just up and attack a fairy just enjoying the view? As Eilo tried to retreat back to the group, the large mushroom being landed another crushing hit knocking Eilo senseless and tumbling her to the floor. The rest of the group heard Eilo suddenly yelp and then there was a loud smack followed by a thud. Everyone advanced immediately into the chamber to see Eilo lying on the floor and multiple small animated mushrooms and one large one advancing on the group. Dour pulls his crossbow and pinned a bolt into one the closest small mushroom along the west wall, and Koram presented the holy symbol on his shield as the sound of a bell tolled out against the same target Dour just hit. Magar snapped off a fire bolt over the dwarves heads into the same target hit by them. Easeis stepped up behind the dwarves and created a magical vortex pulling the unconscious Eilo through a warp in reality and setting her just behind the group. Kismet launched a ball of produced flame into the same target as everyone else, and had CoCo the owl begin flying around the party's targets, distracting them. Koram stepped back a few feet to Eilo's crumpled form, tapped her on the forehead, and told her, "Time to wake up little one.", while casting cure wounds on her. Eilo, sat up, disoriented, but aware enough to use healing light on herself and get airborne again. All the movement and setting up for attacks and casting has stirred up spores from the fungus covering the floor. Koram coughed as he inhaled a lungful of spores, suddenly feeling dizzy. He managed to hold up his shield and once again the sound of a tolling bell rings out and the lead small mushroom creature dropped to the floor. Eilo pulled a fuzzy ball from her Bag of Tricks and threw it just into the room, an axebeak popping into existence. Eilo yelled, "Get them Artichoke!", and the axebeak attacked the next small mushroom creature, but missed. Magar landed a wicked fire bolt and Kismet followed with another ball of produced flame on the mushroom facing Artichoke. The second mushroom warrior spit a cloud of spores right into Artichoke's beak and the axebeak appeared to be stunned or disoriented. Easeis maneuvered into a good spot and threaded a ray of frost between all the combatants hitting the second mushroom warrior and freezing it in place, dead. Dour stood his ground against the two remaining small mushroom warriors, his dwarven resilience allowing him to shake off any effects from the clouds of spores they both spit at him. He hammered one of them with a crushing blow from his maul and fell back after taking a hit in return. Koram presented the holy symbol on his shield face at the small mushroom Dour smashed with his maul, and the tolling of a bell rang out, staggering the third mushroom. The third and fourth mushrooms, both landed hits on Artichoke, killing the poor axebeak. The fourth soldier then took a barrage of cantrips from the three of the party's casters. Magar landed a fire bolt, and Eilo, now recovered a bit, but devastated seeing Artichoke get killed, hit with an eldritch blast. Kismet then grazed it with a ball of produced flame, and Easeis once again fired a ray of frost between the dwarves, hitting the third mushroom, and freezing this one as well. Dour stepped back a few more feet, switching to his heavy crossbow and skewered the fourth mushroom, dropping it to the floor. The giant mushroom leader had now closed the distance to just in front of the group and took a hit from Magar's fire bolt. Eilo hexed the leader and also hit it with an eldritch blast right after Magar's fire bolt. Kismet tossed a ball of produced flame at the leader, but missed, and then backed up behind the dwarves and Easeis. Easeis cast a witch bolt, and a charge of electricity ripped into the mushroom sovereign. Kismet continued to have CoCo perform flybys to distract the group's target. Dour lands a solid hit with his heavy crossbow on the leader. The group has now fully retreated back into the hallway to the south, Magar even moved far enough south to check on the door way back down the hall. Eilo pulled another fuzzball from her bag of tricks and tossed it into the room next to Artichoke's body. A bear appeared in place of the fuzzy, and a sobbing Eilo ordered her new friend "Cantaloupe" to attack as well. Now that the group has moved out of the spore filled room, Koram was able to catch his breath and spit out a mouthful of foul tasting gunk, which cleared the effects of the poison that had affected him. Just able to see the giant mushroom, he tolls the dead, and watched as the leader cringed as necrotic energy rolled over it. Just then the axebeak stood back up, turned and attacked Koram, but was deflected by the dwarf's shield. Cantaloupe attacked the mushroom leader, but missed. Magar's fire bolt singed the now undead Artichoke, and a sobbing Eilo also landed a solid hit with eldritch blast on her now undead pet. Kismet, reluctantly threw a ball of produced flame at Artichoke blasting it with flame and dropping it to the floor, now truly dead. The mushroom leader lands a crushing hit on Canataloupe and the bear joins Artichoke dead on the floor, then steps to the east out of sight of the party. Easeis maintained his focus on the witch bolt and sent another surge of electricity around the corner, which caused the mushroom sovereign to grunt in surprise.

End Session 16 at the top of initiative.

[Koram]

Session 17 - 11/04/2022 - "Sauteed Mushrooms, Evil Salad Monster, Secret Supply Closet, Friezes of a Pair of Strange Adventurers, and Rust Bugs in the Kitchen"


DM : Lasarian
Party: Baiz - Dour Warmfury - Mountain Dwarf Fighter/Champion - Mason's and Smith's Tools
Talo - Easeis - Human - Sorcerer/Spell Void - Dice Set and Thieves' Tools
Stel - Eilo - Fairy - Warlock/Celestial - Flute - "Played this evening by her amazing second, Talo!!!"
Rox - Kismet of the Woods - Wood Elf Druid/Circle of the Land (Forest) - Herbalism Kit
Khaie - Magar - Grey Elf Wizard/School of Evocation - Herbalism Kit
Kor - Koram Orchammer - Hill Dwarf Cleric/Life Domain - Mason's, Cartographer's and Smith's Tools - Herbalism Kit

Begin Session at top of initiative against the Mushroom Sovereign.

Koram moved forward in order to see the Sovereign and cast toll the dead, causing no damage, and gets stunned by the giant mushroom's spores, but managed to draw the giant mushroom back into full view of the party. Magar scorched it with a fire bolt. Dour snapped off a heavy crossbow shot but it flew wide. Eilo landed a wicked eldritch blast and some hex damage. Kismet threw a ball of produced flame and also hit. With all the combined damage from the group, Easeis focuses his witch bolt for another surge of electrical damage, cooking the mushroom leader.

The party slowly entered the room, realizing that if they moved carefully, the spores were not stirred up. Eilo, flitted forward to investigate again, and it definitely appeared to have once been a garden of some kind with a pair of what were probably fountains with pools, now full of mucky sludge. Through the small bare spots in the moldy cover of growth on the ceiling, the party could see what appeared to be an illusion of open sky. As Eilo headed back towards the rest of the group near the entrance to the room, she paused, tilting her head at the sight of a flowered vine type plant that seemed to have moved from where she remembered it being originally. It is now sitting just off in the western part of the room from where the party entered in the south. She called out to Koram, who was closest to the body of poor Cantaloupe the bear, and told him to push the body towards the strange plant. Koram rolled the body towards the plant and was suddenly overwhelmed by the scent of the plant, charmed. Dour shouted a warning and then moved in to smash the plant with his maul, and landed a crushing hit. CoCo the owl flew close by the plant, momentarily distracting it. Easeis focused a mind sliver at the plant, but it appeared to have no effect. The plant whipped a vine out at Dour striking him and sending a jolt of pain directly into his mind. Kismet ran forward to get in view of the strange plant and hurled a ball of produced flame, burning it. Koram stumbled forward, reaching out for the plant, but suddenly his dwarven stubbornness caused him to stop and shake off the plant's charm. Eilo, zipped from where she was hovering further to the north getting a better line on the plant, shifted her hex to this target, and cast eldritch blast, missing. Magar moved in from the south hallway, stirring up some of the spores from the floor while unleashing a fire bolt into the plant. The spore cloud surrounded Magar and Coco the owl, poisoning them and then CoCo stops and hovers in place, charmed by the plant. Dour slammed his maul into the plant again, crushing a large section of its twisted vinelike body. Koram levered his shield up in front of himself his holy symbol on the shield ringing out a toll the dead, but it seemed not to affect the plant. Eilo hammered the plant with an eldritch blast coupled with additional damage from hex, causing more of the creature to splinter away. Magar fell back a bit to the edge of the southern hallway trying to escape the spore cloud, but also managed to cast a quick fire bolt into the plant creature setting it ablaze and slumping it over into burned stump.

As the party carefully moved through the room, checking for any additional dangers, they found enough plant and fungal materials to create three antitoxins and three potions of healing. The group also found 16cp and 11sp, which was given to Dour for his repair and healing fund. The group then decided to explore the hallway to the west.

Following the winding hallway, the group talked about how this hold seems to have been constructed by someone a bit off in the head. The passageway west curved north, east, south and then west again, spiraling back in on itself. After the first turn back west, the walls were covered with friezes, following what appeared to be timelines of the lives of Roghan and Zelligar. Dour and Koram agreed that it appeared the friezes were carved in the last century by a skilled, probably human, craftsman. The right wall appeared to follow Roghan's life of poverty and being sold into slavery to some kind of naval military at a young age. The left wall looked to follow Zelligar's life of luxury while studying magic, until sometime around his early teens, where there was a section of his life that appears to have purposely been left blank with no carvings. The hallway eventually came to a dead end with the carvings apparently ending at a point in the depictions showing Roghan and Zelligar meeting for the first time. Around the last corner at the dead end, there was a large stone base prepared to receive a large statue of some kind, but it appeared that something happened before the statue was brought here to be set in place.

The party circled back out from this spiraling passage and then took a different winding passage to the NW, eventually stopping as the dwarves noticed something odd about the stonework of an apparently blank wall. A secret door was located which opened into what was once apparently some kind of supply room for construction projects. The room contained 200' of heavy rope, 50 iron spikes, a box of 50 nails, 80 - 10'X6"X6" wooden beams, a large sack or mortar mix, 400 - 6"X6"X12" stone blocks, a crate of assorted hardware (hinges, locks, clasps, hasps, handles, etc...), and 6 wooden doors, (Not to be confused with Dour). Easeis took the box of nails and 10 iron spikes and the group decided to place the 200' of rope and the remaining 40 iron spikes in the Bag of Holding Koram was carrying. Koram also grabbed a few handfuls of various hardware fittings just in case the group might find a use. Following the hallway further to the NE, the group came to an intersection with passages heading NE, east and south. The party decided to head south and soon came upon an open door to the south, with the passage turning east. The door lay ajar, and as Dour approached, with Koram just behind to his left, he saw a strange insect-like creature rooting around at something on the floor. It didn't appear to notice the group at first, and as the rest of the party came in sight, Eilo exclaimed, "Hey, look everyone, a rust monster!".

Dour grabbed the door and shut it as the creature turned towards the party. After a minute of discussion, the party decided to open the door and dispatch the monster. Dour popped the door open and took a swing with his maul, but missed. The rust monster attacked Dour, hitting his chainmail, causing no damage to the dwarf, but rusting a portion of his armor's welded links. As Koram stepped forward to assist Dour, he noticed a second rust monster heading towards the party from the hallway to the east. Koram instead turned to the east, reaching into the Bag of Holding on his belt, grabbing and tossing large handful of various metal hardware down the hall to the east. Magar took a few steps back and launched a fire bolt past Dour at the first rust monster, but missed. Easeis, however, did hit with his mind sliver. CoCo the owl streaked by the first monster trying to distract it. Eilo, pulled the las fuzzy of the day from her Bag of Tricks, tossed it to the south, and a baboon appeared next to Dour, attacking the rust critter but missing. Kismet tossed a ball of produced flame between Dour and the baboon causing the rust monster to chitter in pain. The second rust monster stopped its approach to snack on the metal Koram had thrown on the floor. Easeis cast another mind sliver tearing into the first rust monster's brain, killing it. Hearing the sounds of fighting end behind him, Koram focused his faith to toll the dead on the second monster, watching as it flinched when the necrotic sound rolled over it. Magar moved forward to see around the corner and zipped a fire bolt past Koram, but missed the second rust monster. Eilo, zipped down to the corner and lands a solid hit with eldritch blast. The baboon moved away from the southern door and attacked the second monster, but missed. A second later Dour stepped out of the southern doorway, dropping his maul, drawing, loading and firing his crossbow in one clean action, hitting the monster square in the body. The second rust monster, already staggered from the punishment it has taken, lashed out at the baboon, but the agile monkey dodged the hit. Kismet moved up to see around the corner and cleanly tossed a ball of produced flame past her comrades, striking the monster and burning it. Koram once again planted his shield in front of the creature letting the toll the dead roll over the rust monster, dropping it to the floor.

The party checked around to make sure everyone was ok and then agreed to move through the southern door where the first rust monster was found. They entered a long narrow room which was apparently a galley style cooking area at one time. The room still had remnants of rotted food, wooden and copper utensils, but no iron items of any kind remained, evidence of the rust monsters hunger. After a thorough search, the group finds nothing of value in the room.

End Session 17

266 XP combined for Sessions 16 and 17.

[Koram]

Session 18 - 11/11/2022 - "The Keg Room, Magical Workshop of the Vexing Force Cage, and the Comment of the Night from Magar, My Mage Hand is Touching Everything it Can!!!"


DM : Lasarian
Party: Baiz - Dour Warmfury - Mountain Dwarf Fighter/Champion - Mason's and Smith's Tools
Talo - Easeis - Human - Sorcerer/Spell Void - Dice Set and Thieves' Tools
Stel - Eilo - Fairy - Warlock/Celestial - Flute
Rox - Kismet of the Woods - Wood Elf Druid/Circle of the Land (Forest) - Herbalism Kit
Khaie - Magar - Grey Elf Wizard/School of Evocation - Herbalism Kit
Kor - Koram Orchammer - Hill Dwarf Cleric/Life Domain - Mason's, Cartographer's and Smith's Tools - Herbalism Kit

We pick up as the party exits the galley/kitchen room heading back out the door they entered. Since the baboon has survived his tanking role for a round and is now wandering with the group, Eilo names him Bootybutt. The dwarves begin checking the walls in the area because of the irregular shape of the hallway, and end up locating a secret door in the west wall. The group checks the door for traps and then opens it revealing another oddly shaped storeroom, this one filled with various casks, kegs and barrels. The group quickly checks the room, but decides to come back later to fully investigate the casks and kegs. Traveling back to the large area centrally located just west of the main north-south corridor, they find another secret door on the south wall that opens into what appears to be a laboratory. As Eilo, Dour and Easeis enter the room a glowing cage of magical force with half inch squares in the bars appears from ceiling to floor capturing them. Simultaneously, a pendulum drops from the ceiling to the west and begins swinging east to west blocking all sound within about 20' from its metal ball shaped tip. The sporadic silence is both annoying and disconcerting, making communication choppy and difficult to those within range. Magar, Kismet and Koram carefully enter the room, hugging the north wall to avoid setting off any other defenses. Magar casts detect magic and sees the tip of the pendulum and the cage of energy as expected, but also sees a glow emanating from a black table to the east and from a single jar on table covered with several other jars to the west. There do not appear to be any other magical traps on the floor, so it appears those not trapped can at least check out the room. As Easeis, Dour and Eilo attempt to use both physical and magical means to disrupt or bend the magical bars of the force cage, Kismet, Magar and Koram carefully investigate the room searching for a means to turn off the cage. The table that emanates magic is dusted off and upon closer inspection appears to almost be a void drawing all the surrounding light into itself. Magar tries to use his identify spell on it, but only gets that it seems to be enchanted against any damage. An idea is tossed out to try and move the table into the force cage to try and interrupt the magic, but Koram cannot get the table to budge. There is a small log pile near the table that gets disturbed during the search revealing a gold ring as it rolls from the pile. The ring does not register as magical and it is passed through the small openings in the force cage to Eilo. There are also a pair of kegs by the door labeled with the letters B and TL on the lids. B contains what appears to be wheat flour and TL contains barley. Magar also identifies that the jar emanating magic contains a potion of some kind. During the time Kismet, Magar and Koram are checking the rest of the chamber, Eilo has the baboon climb the force cage and then hop onto the pendulum in an attempt to pull it from the ceiling or get it to stop swinging. When Bootybutt the baboon has no success, Eilo sends him back out by the door. Dour, Easeis and Eilo have had no luck in damaging or shifting the bars of the magical cage, just as the group outside has had no luck in finding a solution to open the cage to release their companions.

There is a sudden ruckus from outside the door, and Kismet, closest to the door, peeks out to see Bootybutt, swarmed by giant rats, fall to the ground and disappear in a pulse of magic. Knowing the group is more limited with half the party trapped in the force cage, quickly shuts the door, and warns everyone. Magar and Koram begin to investigate the south door from the room, and Kismet moves to join them, while keeping watch on the north door where she saw the rats. Magar casts a new detect magic ritual as Koram inspects the door. Once Magar gives the all clear on the door, Koram opens it to reveal another chamber that also appears to be part of the laboratory. These rooms appear to have been Telligar's workshop and lab. The southern room contains a black table matching the one in the north chamber. There are overturned tables and chairs, with several shelves along the north wall on either side of the door packed with various containers. As Kismet, Magar and Koram take in the scene in the southern chamber, Magar's detect magic shows him additional glyphs on the floor to the SE and SW. It has been about an hour since the force cage appeared, and thankfully, it now flickers and then disappears from existence, freeing Dour, Easeis and Eilo. They carefully move forward to the southern door making the party whole again. Other than the glyphs and the magical black table, there appears to be almost nothing of interest in the southern room. That is, until Eilo finds a dead cat preserved in a jar on the one of the shelves on the north wall. She casts the light cantrip on it and decides she wants to keep it, asking Koram to put it in the Bag of Holding for her. There is some effort made to toss some objects and hit the glyphs with cantrips, but nothing happens. The SW glyph is right against the wall where the dwarves can see the outline of a secret door, but based on the layout of the halls and rooms, it apparently just leads back out into one of the hallways the group has already explored. Deciding to just leave the glyphs untriggered, the group moves back into the north room and prepares to open the door to fight the giant rats.

The party spreads out with the dwarves in front and the casters spread in a semi-circle behind them, and then Dour opens the door, trying to smash the rat just outside with his maul, but misses. The rats lunges forward and bites Dour's calf just above his heavy dwarven boot, but just below his mail legging, drawing blood. Magar repositions himself and launches his ice knife spell, missing the target but still exploding into icy fragments, causing some minor damage to a couple of rats nearby, but bouncing harmlessly off the dwarves armor. Easeis weaves a ray of frost between the dwarves freezing the lead rat and killing it. Eilo zips over the heads of the dwarves, well out of reach of the rats, and casts word of radiance, erupting in light and damaging two of the rats, before flying back into the room behind the dwarves. Dour leans out of the doorway to the left and smashes a rat into a bloody smear on the floor. Kismet throws a ball of produced flame over the dwarves scorching another rat in the hall. Koram sets his shield and tolls the dead, but it has no effect on his target. Magar casts another ice knife, striking and killing the rat he targeted, but the resulting explosion of icy shrapnel also cuts Dour. A fourth rat charges in and nips at Dour, drawing a bit more blood from the dwarf, but he remains in place holding the door. Easeis targets one of the rats already injured by various spells in the hall with a ray of frost, hitting it. Eilo, flutters up above the dwarves to see the remaining rats a bit better and kills another with an eldritch blast. Koram steps out into the hallway past Dour and smashes a rat with his war hammer, killing it. The two remaining rats both attack Koram, but he sidesteps one while the other rat leaps harmlessly right into Koram's shield. Magar sneaks a fire bolt between the dwarves burning a rat, but not quite killing it. Easeis moves into the hallway to get set up between the dwarves, and gets nipped on the calf by one of the rats in passing. Easeis turns and lands a ray of frost on the rat that bit at him, killing it instantly. Eilo flies out into the hall and hits the last rat with an eldritch blast, staggering, but not killing it. Dour follows up with another crushing strike with his maul, smashing the final rat flat.

After a quick check to make sure everyone is ok, it is decided to head back to the keg storeroom behind the secret door around the corner to the west. The party heads there uneventfully and does a more thorough search of the room. There are several kegs of pickles, liquid soap, water, sunflower seeds, honey, hard candy, seasonings, lard, ale whole barley and raisins in the kegs that are searched. There are still other kegs remaining in the room that the group has not yet checked. The party settles in and takes a rest to recover from the recent battles.

End Session 18

25 XP for Session 18

[Koram]

Session 19 - 11/18/2022 - "Couple of Happy and Peaceful Crystal Rooms Leads to a Teleport, Lights Out and a Giant Acid Snot Cube"


DM : Lasarian
Party: Baiz - Dour Warmfury - Mountain Dwarf Fighter/Champion - Mason's and Smith's Tools
Talo - Easeis - Human - Sorcerer/Spell Void - Dice Set and Thieves' Tools
Stel - Eilo - Fairy - Warlock/Celestial - Flute
Rox - Kismet of the Woods - Wood Elf Druid/Circle of the Land (Forest) - Herbalism Kit
Khaie - Magar - Grey Elf Wizard/School of Evocation - Herbalism Kit
Kor - Koram Orchammer - Hill Dwarf Cleric/Life Domain - Mason's, Cartographer's and Smith's Tools - Herbalism Kit

Session starts with the group having completed a rest in the keg room of pickles, which Eilo has decided would be perfect for bath time.

The party heads out after a restful night deciding to explore the halls to the north. Following a winding hallway heading mostly north, the group finds what was once a library with a large R and Z on the decorative marble floor. There is a soft red light emanating from the marble ceiling and the party again comments on the eccentricity of Roghan and Zelligar. The library appears to have been looted and nothing of value is found.

The party checks a door to the west and finds more doors and halls to the north and south. The party circles back to the south and finds a functional smithy that appears to have been idle for a long time. South of the smithy is a room with a well and another door leading further south. Eilo casts light on herself and flies down the well secured by a rope to the group above. The bottom of the well opens into a natural cavern. Eilo flits around checking the room and flies back up to tell the group that the cave is maybe 10' X 20' with a tunnel heading out to the NE. It is agreed to use some of the lumber in the room to block the well opening to prevent anything crawling up from the cavern below. The party moves out the door to the south and finds that it leads back into the hallway circling west then north back to the smithy door and an as yet unexplored door to the north, just west of the smithy door. The north door leads into a 20' X 20' room that appears to be a waste/storeroom for the smithy containing nothing but ashes and some wood. There is also a door on the west wall which is locked. Easeis picks the lock and the group opens the door to reveal a solid unfinished stone wall. After some investigation, it appears that the door was hung over what may have been a planned, but unfinished, continuation of the stronghold.

The party heads back north and opens a door to the north into a small room containing nothing but a clump of glowing green crystals that appear to grow directly out of the wall. Possible the room was carved around some natural formation or that they crystals were somehow magically "grown" from the wall. A feeling of peace and happiness is felt by everyone entering the chamber. Magar casts detect magic revealing that the crystals give off abjuration magic. Dour tries to break a small section of crystal from the clump, but only manages to get some small chips and dust which no longer emanate magic. Eilo flies over as sits on the crystal growth and tells everyone that it's super comfy. The group leaves the chamber heading down a hall to the east and then turning north ending up in a small unremarkable dead end room. The group then follows a hall to the west which turns north. The hall then splits to the north and east, then back south to another dead end to the east and a door to the west. The door opens into another 20' X 35' room with another crystal growth sprouting from the wall, this time glowing blue. The same pleasant feeling fills this chamber, at least until the lights go out, and everyone feels momentarily disoriented.

The group realizes they are no longer together in the crystal chamber, and that they have somehow been magically transported, each into their own small 10' X 10' chamber with 2, 3, or 4 doors on varying walls. Regular torches and light cantrips seem to work, but do not dispel the darkness. The exception being the M Torch carried by Easeis, which on its brightest setting, dispels the dark. Easeis sees that his room has 4 doors with a quick check verifying that the south and east are locked, the north is ajar and the west has some strange green tinted slime oozing its way around the entire door into the room with him. Easeis heads north to get away from the slime and as he closes the door, everyone hears what sounds like gears and other mechanisms moving. The group begins calling out and everyone realizes that they can hear each other from different directions and distances. Magar seems to be the furthest east with doors to his west and south. Eilo is SW of Magar with Dour to her west. Kismet is to Dour's north and Koram to Kismet's west. After Easeis moves one room north, it seems that he is now just west of Koram. No one is able to open any doors until Easeis closes the door he had passed through to his south. Magar is then able to open the door to his south and move through. Kismet tried hacking at the door to her east with her scimitar, but because she could not see in darkness, ended up hitting her owl familiar, Dillhole, killing it. The group continues yelling to each other so that, even in the confusion, everyone can somewhat keep track of where everyone else is and what they are doing. Easeis sees the slime now starting to pour around the door he just passed through, and tries to damage it with a mind sliver. The party finally figures out that only one door can be opened at a time and must be closed before another can be opened. Magar opens the door to his west and realizes that he and Eilo are now in the same chamber, so he quickly closes the door behind him so someone else can open a door and move. Kismet opens the door to her west and moves into the room where Koram is waiting so he can open the door to his west for Easeis. During this time, the slime has flooded into the room with Easeis, who attempts another mind sliver, but to no effect. The giant green cube of slime lashes out, and Easeis is unable to dodge, getting partially engulfed and burned by the acidic slime. The mechanisms finally unlock allowing Koram to open the door to his west for Easeis, and the light of the M Torch floods into the room revealing Easeis struggling against the gelatinous monster that has trapped him. Easeis manages to wriggle free, limping through the open door to his east, Koram and Kismet able to see the where the acidic slime has burned him severely. Because of the door being held open as Easeis struggled to escape the slime cube, no one else was able to open any doors. Koram is finally able to close the west door on the slime resetting all the mechanical locks. Eilo lands on Magar's shoulders and they head through the north door out of Eilo's room, closing the door behind them. Kismet casts cure wounds on Easeis, clearing some of the more severe burns he has sustained, as Koram opens and heads through the door to the east telling Kismet and Easeis to follow. As Easeis and Kismet move to follow Koram, the green ooze has already started rapidly flooding around the closed door to the west as if the creature is angered at losing its meal. Once the door is closed to the west, Easeis, Kismet and Koram can open the door to the south allowing Dour to move north and join them. Meanwhile the green ooze is flooding into the room from the closed west door again. Once the south door is closed, Easeis is able to open the east door revealing Magar and Eilo, and the party is fully reunited, but the slime has also flooded itself partway into the room with Dour, Kismet and Koram. Leaving the door between two rooms open allows Eilo, Easeis and Magar to stand back and cast spells while Dour, Kismet and Koram stay in the chamber to confront the giant acidic snot cube. Easeis and Magar both cast mind sliver at the slime, but only Magar's cantrip seems to have any effect. The gelatinous cube surges forward and hits Kismet, engulfing her almost completely and severly burning her with its acidic body. Koram lands a haymaker with his war hammer, and calling to Moradin, summons a spiritual hammer which also pummels the slime. Eilo hexes the cube and also crushes it with an eldritch blast. Dour winds up and delivers a punishing overhand swing with his maul. Easeis focuses an electrical witch bolt shocking the creature. Magar looks around and grabs the first suitable item for his catapult spell, Dillhole the owl's corpse, launching it into the slime. The gelatinous cube has now almost completely filled the room where Dour, Kismet and Koram are fighting, and now both Dour and Koram are also partially engulfed by the monster and being burned by its acid. Kismet has succumbed to the acid burns and fallen unconscious, and is fully entrapped inside the giant green cube. Koram slams his war hammer into the slime again, and with a moment of indecision shouts a healing word at Kismet rather than commanding his spiritual hammer to strike. Kismet is still terribly wounded, but wakes up and begins struggling again. Eilo, seeing her friend, Kismet, so close to death, surges with anger landing a crippling eldritch blast and follow-up necrotic pulse from her hex causing the giant snot monster to lose its cohesion and slump into a giant puddle of green slime. A search of the leftover slime pool reveals 4pp. The party moves through the rooms slowly, finally locating an exit in the south central area close to Dour's starting room. The group moves out into a hallway and catches their breath.

While the group is cleaning up and deciding what to do next, Easeis and Koram discuss a few thoughts.

"If this place wasn't carved out of stone, I'd suggest we burn it down.", says Easeis."The thing that annoys me the most is the store-rooms hidden behind secret doors. Even more than the history wall.", continues Easeis.

Koram agrees, "The fake door to nowhere is also somewhat grr, even if it was still under construction, why put a locked door in to cover nothing?"

During their discussion, they both realize that Roghan and Zelligar were considered odd in their day, and the party is now getting a sense of that up close and personal.

"At least we can take solace in the fact that these two loons are dead.", muses Easeis.

Koram replies, "They were definitely eccentric. Not sure if I'm impressed or annoyed, or both."

"They were clearly, highly successful. This is an impressive structure. Oddly placed out in the middle of nowhere.", Easis states.

Koram responds, "Agreed. Maybe it can be repurposed once we get it cleared out." He then grumbles adding, "What I do know, deep down to my dwarven bones, that I hate all forms of slimy and blobby critters. This green snot cube and the bloody pulp babbling thing at the Grove of the Archdruid made up my mind 100%."

"What got me was the burning when it touched me. I didn't much care for the burning.", Easeis says with a grimace.

Koram walks with Easeis as he wanders back to the edge of the remnants of the gelatinous cube, and crouches to investigate it more closely.

Koram says, "What'cha doin there poking at the slime, Easeis? Thinking we can use it somehow? Let me have a look too." He adds thoughtfully, "Yup, durn thing definitely had a bit o' sting to it. Hmmm, wonder if we could brew it into something... That would make a fiery alcohol."

"Well, it is gross.", states Easeis confidently. "If it has uses it is beyond me. Probably best to just leave it be lest it burn holes in our pockets."

"Yeah, I got nothin either. Ah well.", Koram says and then adds, "Maybe putting a giant glob o' snot in something isn't a great idea."

While poking around, however, Easeis and Koram do find a small green marble and gold tooth that were missed when the creature was initially searched.

Kismet wanders over and seeing the gold tooth and the marble exclaims, "Oooooh!".

Koram wonders to himself if this marble is actually green or just covered in booger from the cube? He cleans it off a bit and states, "Oooh, yup shiny and really green."

Easeis asks if Magar can cast ritual detect magic to determine if either item is enchanted, and identify if they are. Magar complies and tells the group that the marble is enchanted with illusion magic, but must be coupled with another item to work. The gold tooth is just some poor sod's gold tooth that the group guesses is no longer needed by the person that lost it.


End Session 19

64 XP for Giant Snot Cube Battle this session.