Eilarolyn's page

Finally got back to Magnimar. Checked in, spent a couple days at my temple working out the aches and pains and rejuvenating. Got my share of the loot and went shopping. Picked up the few items I wanted and decided to go to Sandpoint.

Simon had finished his stuff as well and wanted to go back also. So we rode back together. He can be loud and obnoxious in certain situations, but otherwise is an ok companion. Not a lot of talk.

We got back to Sandpoint evening of the second day. We were just dropping off our horses when in popped Zandu and Rikert. Simon and I looked at each other and said Damn.

Apparently, a large sinkhole opened up by the garrison. The giants we left there were still working in the town.

We were told about the hole and that evil sounds were coming from below and that a group of soldiers were sent in to investigate and after screams and other sounds were heard, they never returned. Guards had been standing watch since.

We went down and did a little investigating and it's part of the underground that we've investigated before and much looked the same, but some other things had changed. We'll get the entire party back and find out what's going on down there.

In the meantime, I went and spoke with the giants with the help of Shelelu. She wants them to go to Fort Rannick and help rebuild etc. I told them they were now free to return to their tribe, but traveling there may not be safe, at least until the army returns.

Well, we took out Mocmurian, but it took two shots. First time out, we started doing damage and got through to him. I removed his energy protection and started doing damage. He got damaged and took off via a dimension door. I am going to find a way to cancel that. I’m tired of the bad guys just disappearing before we’re done with them.

He came back, but he brought us help. He didn’t know it, but he brought Kona and a few other giants. Kona turned on him and the fight was on. We tried to focus on Mocmurian and Kona turned a couple giants to her side and they helped fight the other giants aligned with Mocmurian.

We finally took him down and started gathering loot. Kona asked us to remain here in this area while she dispersed the army. So while we were waiting, we started searching the area. We found a library with lots of stuff written in Thassilonean. There was also a construct of some sort that would get us what we asked for.

When we killed Mocmurian, we were blessed with an image of Karzoug, the person pulling all these strings lately. Turns out he’s a rune lord from 10,000 years ago that has apparently found a way to wake up and come back and start problems. Xandu went back to Magnimar to tell the mayor that we had stopped the giant army and he could recall them back to the city. He also got Friedrich to come back to us.

Friedrich studied what he could get from the library, over the next couple days. We figured we had what we were going to get and I went to explore the upper floors to see if the giants were still there. I found no evidence that the giants were still here. So we left.

Up on top of the cavern we searched through the various buildings and found nothing of real interest. Then we went to the black tower. Inside we found a trap door. We opened it up and it was total darkness. We could pick up a faint whisper of something about a green light.

We dropped a sunrod to the bottom of the hole which turned out to be about 50 feet down. So I went down and people followed. I was flying, others were cloud walking. Well, let’s just jump into the fire shall we. We found a very nasty creature down below, some sort of undead creature who didn’t play nice. Many of us were reduced several levels and I was frozen with fear and he hit me. It took us a while, but we finally took him down. He really didn’t like Rikert. Xandu did some healing to keep the paladin up and helped me as well. The undead didn’t like Xandu much either. Luckily for me he landed next to me to attack Xandu. So I hit him with shocking grasp. He now had several people he didn’t like. Decisions, decisions.

He moved away from me and I was allowed to shoot him with a lightning bolt and finished him off. The paladin had done damage and so had Sheldor with lightning also. Nasty creature and most of us don’t know what it is. He had a really nice scroll tube and we’re waiting for Moxie to open it.

With that finished, we then left to go investigate the dragon hoard cave. We gathered that treasure and we are planning on going to Magnimar to cash in and re-equip. It is my understanding that the levels will come back slowly.

We gathered up again and went n down the passage. We were attacked again by some sort of fire creature. It came out of the wall, literally and vomited fire. We continued fighting with it going in and out of the walls and attacking until we finally destroyed it. We lost some armor but were basically intact. Once some healing was done, we went down the hallway until we came to a hallway with Thasilonean runes written all over. The runes were a repeated spell to offer calming affects if allowed. There was a mirrored door at the end which after studying revealed that it was infused with a summoning spell of greater strength.

At the other end of the hallway, the group found a room which had been smoothed out and rounded corners. Inside they found some sort of magical hounds. Several of the party engaged in melee and I followed eventually. I shut the door as I entered. The hounds blinked out of sight and we spent a bit looking for them before going to the other doors in the room.

We went through and found Mocmurian, finally. Now the fight is on. After a few quick salvos, I’ve learned that he has lightning protection of some sort and no apparent spell resistance. He can be damaged and the druid threw a spell I hadn’t seen. We’ll see how it goes, I’ve got a couple things to try.

We scouted for a while and with the druids turning into crows and such we decided to try to make contact with the elder. I wasn’t involved just an observer, but apparently we made contact and she wasn’t behind Mocmurian’s plan and agreed to speak with us. It turned out that we basically agreed to not kill any more giants than we had to, while we tried to take out Mocmurian.

Our next task involved us finding a way to sneak everyone in. The only way to do it involved me reading a teleport scroll. This meant that I had to see the place I was going. I cast fly, and went invisible and followed Haythem, as a crow, into the cave. Nobody told me about the problems with the room. Next thing I know, I’m paralyzed and all I see is a giant foot stomping on me. Next thing I know, Haythem has brought me back from unconsciousness and near death. I study the room while I’m still unable to move. As soon as I’m able, we fly out again.

The group sees to my wounds and we do the teleport. I was distracted as I didn’t want to return and nearly didn’t make it to the room, but my god was with me and we arrived safely. We got the map and started our journey down.

We crept past a dining area and a couple giants, then ran into a some sort of evil, hopped up, lizard type creature. That was an ugly fight with our newest half orc member getting severely wounded before we were able to take her down.

Now the next few things that happened, I wasn’t paying any attention. I missed the barracks and the trolls. (player went to Colorado Springs and played with wolves)

Traveling in the dark is tough. I’m going to have to invest in something that allows me to see in complete darkness. Our sneaky members found a room with a couple giants in it and the room was odd also, but I didn’t know that until we could see it. Attacks started coming from the giants and Moxie lit a light. The fight continued, I tried to help from outside but the giant was immune to my spell. We did manage to finish them off and as we moved through the room many of our party was reduced in size including myself. I know it’s not permanent, but I don’t know how long it will last.

We entered into another room with what appeared to be frozen undead ogres and giants. We progressed so far and several of them attacked. There was a headless fighter that seemed to be in charge, and he was bad, using two hatchets. We were victorious, but it wasn’t easy and we continue down toward the library.

Flying again, cross country. Hathom and his companion, flew Simon, and myself, and Sheldor flew Moxie over five days to the mountains close to Jorgenfist. It was cold, it was no frills and we got there basically without incident.

We saw 4 goblins and the remnants of what appeared to be a giant scouting or raiding party returning. When we got close to the giant stairs that lead to the plateau, there were giant guardians watching it and another group on top that appeared to be stationed there. We found a place to land and make camp that was reasonably safe to make contact with Zandu via his scrying and message spell. Once he made contact, they teleported to us and we began our surveillance.

What we saw was seven giant camps on the outside of a large walled compound. The compound had a tower of some sort and a large pit with some other buildings. One had either mastodons or mammoths in a stable like setting and frost giants pulling security and escort duty to anyone coming into the complex.

There was one oddity that we noticed. All the giant camps were young giants. According to Davok, giant tribes are run by elders. There was only one elder, in any of the campus. We got Hathom to risk some surveillance into the various sections, and he found some insect swarm producing undead spiders, and several magically enhanced wyvern.

On a sequential trip into the pit, he spotted the single elder, sitting and thinking and an altar of some sort.

We’re planning now, but can’t wait too long.

Breathe, relax, nobody’s attacking you right now. You have your own things to do. Find a quiet spot, think. The impending doom of a giant army has made me want to figure out how best to improve my equipment and or gear.

After this last giant attack, standing toe to toe with a giant isn’t a good idea, I definitely don’t want to be grappled, I’d be in trouble, so that’s a thought. I don’t have the armor or strength to go toe to toe without my magic, so either more spells or more defense or both. Trying to find the best combination is a challenge. Some of the others knew what they wanted and why, I hadn’t given it much thought as I’d been fairly busy. But now the time was there. Two days on the road to Magnimar to think and make decisions. Some things had been decided already, we apparently were going to the stronghold of the head giant to try and kill him. Well that being the case, I know I’m going to go get right with my goddess, definitely going to be some wine and women.

I improved my armor, but was told we didn’t have as much time in town as I’d hoped so I couldn’t get the armor that I wanted, oh well. Nothing comes easy. I purchased some things to have on me in case I have life force stolen from me.

My goddess isn’t known as the kindest, but I believe it’s worth the investment. I feel refreshed and rejuvenated, but apparently I’m not any smarter, I’m still going to the giant stronghold. If I survive this next battle, I’ll get some things I want, one way or another.

Things calmed down. We had a lot of damage everywhere. I started out by the giants that had been looting the Scarnetti mansion. We had people in bags that needed to be freed and aided. By the time Sheldor and Rikert showed up, we had freed most of them and they were able to get them up and moving. We got them, and more importantly, Mr. Scarnetti himself going back to his mansion with his belongings, and I headed back to town and help with the clean up. I wandered back to where I had left the dragon. I got Hatham to come help me drag it down off the roof of the theater, and take it out of town. He said he could cast a spell to see if we could find his treasure, but he’d need to wait until he renewed his spells and he’d need some of the dragon hide. I helped him with that and went back to town. To see what else I could do. I started helping with clean up and getting rid of the dead giants and bears. There is talk of putting some skulls on areas for a warning to others.

There were two captive giants still to deal with. We got the one off the roof of city hall and had the other brought so they were together. I heard later that there were discussions as to what to do with them, but we really wanted information about what was going on. I’m not sure the town leaders were completely behind the idea but let our group take the lead. They left city guard to watch them.

I spent the next few days digging graves and helping around town. Others in our group tried to get the giants to talk and give us information. Eventually it worked and they told us a spellcasting giants was gathering an army of giants with about 700 giants plus lots of other large creatures. The giants agreed to do a week’s worth of work and then leave safely and not join the giant army.

I am going to Magnimar. I need supplies, and maybe upgrade some equipment. Probably reacquaint myself with my deity. I’ll leave others to get the governments involved in the upcoming fight. We seem to have been going for weeks with very little rest, one fight after another and now another looming. Where are the others fighting this evil? It can’t be up to us alone to turn the tide. I guess I should bemoan the loss of a companion, but …

No time to gloat over the dragon, giants are in the town. I moved toward Zandu and Davok about a block away at what was the city hall building. Being prudent, I vanished on my approach to battle and came up on one that Davok had turned into a pin cushion. I killed it with an attack and in the meantime, Davok took out another. Then it was on to the brewery.

Still able to walk on air, thanks to Zandu I headed straight there as the crow flies, moving as fast as I could. It took a little bit, but several of us got there in time to take out the remaining giants in town. Annie took one out with a hex, making it sleep. Hathom hit one with fire and I attacked another. It only took a few seconds of combat before the giants were dead or disabled and then we turned our attention to some seemingly far away giants at the Scarnetti mansion.

We were able to see smoke from the area. I gave Davok the ability to fly and we both headed the same direction as the crow flies. He got ahead of me and noticed four giants heading down the roadway and going into the woods. We gave chase as well. Some of the other party members were on the road, heading the same direction.

When we finally got to the giants, one was pulling a cart full of loot, while the others were following. The group attacked with Davok doing serious damage, he really hates giants. We didn’t want to let them get into the woods, but it was close. We killed them all, but lost Annie in the process. And I believe that was it. The town is a mess, we’ve lost another party member, and we still haven’t figured out what the giants were after in the first place.

Going toe to toe with a stone giant is somewhat intimidating, probably foolish. He swung, but my mirror images kept me safe. I hit him with a shocking grasp and dropped him. The group of us finished off the stone giants at that entrance and I was told more were at the mill area. I told Zandu where I was going and used dimension door to get there.

The giants had moved further into town and it took me a couple rounds to get to where I could attack, but before I could, the dragon offered me a shot I couldn’t refuse and hit it with a lightning bolt.

He landed on the theater and I closed. That was a decision in the heat of battle, not well thought out, but the closest enemy. I overcame the dragon fear aura and closed to attack. He took out all but one of my mirror images with his attacks, one of them actually hit, but stoneskin took the brunt. I finished off the dragon with the next attack. He had been damaged by some combat and several lightning strikes, apparently from Hathom, so it wasn't just me.

Zandu had shown up with Davok in tow and Davok was doing his thing with giants. He got hit and dropped, but Zandu got him back up. Davok hates giants and couldn’t resist reengaging these foes.

I think we’ve got eight or nine giants left in town that we need to finish off. The town is a wreck. I think we left a couple of the bears running wild by the bridge area, hopefully the guard can take care of those and the people can stay away from them. The giants pose a bigger threat and we need to take them out. Possibly take one down alive to get some information, or so I’ve been told. We’ll see, the heat of battle is a strange thing.

After flying for a couple days, I was glad for good food and a bed to stretch out on. Gathered some components from the market that I was sure I’d need, then basically spent the day relaxing.

Most of the group returned by evening, Moxie and Rikert returned during the night as I went to bed early.

Zandu knocked on the door early, I tried to ignore him and wait for the food. It wasn’t ready yet. I got dressed and prepared anyway and went downstairs and grabbed some bread. Breakfast wasn’t ready when the bells started ringing. Zandu and I took off together, he cast a spell on me that he said was to split damage. He cast another spell on me that allowed me to walk on air. He’d done that before in the clock tower back in Magnimar.

As we were running we heard a commotion and took off for where the bridge had been removed. It didn’t really slow down the 4 giants that were coming through the town. The giants were grabbing up people and putting them bags after knocking them against something. The citizens were at least unconscious and likely dead. I drank a potion and cast a couple spells on myself on the way there. I now had several images, stoneskin and was hasted. As soon as I got in range, I launched a lightning bolt into a giant and one of the 6 dire bears that were accompanying them. Not going to be a good fight.

We kept closing on the invaders and I launched another bolt into the giant. I got closer and hit him with burning hands, he looks hurt, but we go hand to hand next. I hope the other attacks look better than this one. Zandu, Moxie, Annie and myself against 4 giants and 6 dire bears doesn’t look promising. We’ll see.

Well I must say this is a somewhat boring, uneventful journal entry for myself. We arrived at Fort Rannick, beaten up and exhausted. After a good night's sleep and some healing from Zandu, we sort of went our separate ways.

Hathom and I went to return the body part to his lover Mirianna the nymph. We flew most of the way and landed outside the clearing. I called for Yap a couple times and we blindfolded ourselves and entered the clearing.

We stumbled a bit and continued moving toward the center until we heard a voice. I gave her a piece of the captain's body. She said some things and then disappeared. There was a naked male elf left in the clearing and the nymph was gone. After exchanging some information with the former captain, he decided to stay there. Yap gave us the remaining fairy dust and Hathom and I returned to Fort Rannick to let them know what was going on and what happened with the captain. Then we went back to Turtleback Ferry.

Zandu had left with Davok, Moxie and Simon to supposedly go to Magnimar. There was no way for Zandu to take all of us to Magnimar, so Hathom and decided to leave for Sandpoint the next morning, depending on whether Zandu showed up or not and what he said. He showed up and told us that they had accidentally teleported to Sandpoint instead of Magnimar. Annie, and Rikert stayed there to wait until the next day and teleport with Zandu to Magnimar. Hathom and I left for Sandpoint with Sheldor and Shelelu.

It took us two and a half days of flying to get to Sandpoint but we apparently arrived before any attack happened. With the market in town I need to get a couple things, I'll worry about getting to Magnimar later.

Three giants, and a lamia, that’s all we faced. We jumped at the lamia mostly as a group, but we had a couple looking toward the giants. They were throwing rocks as they got closer and Davok was shooting arrows at the small one, which turned out to be a spellcaster. The fight wore on much longer than was good. The lamia was tough. She was hard to hit and resistant to spells.

Hitting the giants was easier, but it meant they could hit back, not a good exchange. The spell caster hit some of us with a fear spell and sent Simon and Davok running, not good. Our paladin left too. Our witch, dropped a giant with a spell, and Hatham’s pet roc took another one out at the same time. Then we were left with the smaller spell casting giant. He was injured from previous attacks, but still healthier than I wanted. We concentrated, Hatham, I and Annie, and managed to take him down, but none of us were feeling well when it was done. We noticed that the lamia had run off after Zandu and Moxie.

I took a second to drink a potion, just to stop the bleeding. Then I took off after the lamia. Zandu had made it impossible for her to jump away from the fight, she was limited to her slithering. The fear affects finally wore off of Simon and Davok and they came back to join the fight on the lamia. We dropped her, only took three encounters to finally eliminate her, then we all took a breath.

I was basically out of spells, Zandu was nearly out and nearly all of us were nearly dead, but we survived. We rounded up all the loot and information we could find, part of the dead captain to take back to the nymph and trekked part way back down the mountain. Still snowing but much less than it was, but we were alive, and we knew more information.

Lots of talk about what to do and where to go. Seems like we have more work to do before we can relax. But we’re going back to Sandpoint, at least that’s where the information leads us to believe is the target of an upcoming attack, including a dragon. Have to finish things with the nymph first then some members talk about Magnimar, but we’ll see.

We traveled back through the room and started up some stairs the circled up to a higher level. Moxie was out front and spotted, what turned out to be, a hag. There turned out to be 3 of them and they filled the room with fog. With sight being a problem, it was mostly a hand to hand fight. After we had killed one of them, and injured the other two, they sued for mercy. Offering to give us information and leave the area. Personally, after all the damage they had done, the only mercy they deserved was quick death. They killed people through their actions, and would only go someplace else and do the same. They destroyed people’s lives, they didn’t deserve mercy. Some of our group wanted to let them go after talking to them and stopped fighting. That’s fine, I’m sure it will be remembered. The druid figured out that the non-stop rain was connected to the cauldron so they dumped it out. The weather will return to normal.

After going back down the stairs, we continued to the next room with Moxie again in the lead. She entered a room with Davok not far behind. Initially, nobody saw anything. Then the arrows started flying. Once we spotted what was going on, the attacker turned out to be the captain of the Black Arrows. The problem was that he had been turned into an undead monster.

It took us a while to get him back to a dead status. Once we accomplished that it was on down the hall. We entered a large cavern with 3 giants; a small one on a throne and two larger ones.

The struggle up to the top of the mountain was severe. It took me longer than the rest of the group. When I finally arrived, they were already engaged in combat with several ogres. I joined combat and we finished them off.

The entry had large bonelike structures coming out of the ground. There were tiny carvings all over these bones. After some study, I determined that they were the bones of a giant blue dragon. There was a large statue like thing further into the cave. It was wearing a sahedron symbol like Zandu’s and we determined that the creature was being kept in stasis as dead. Davok climbed up and removed the symbol and it turned to dust. We kept going.

We came to a room with several passageways leading out of it. There were ogres and a hill giant guarding it, watching for us. We didn’t disappoint. The fight was on. The ogres had more coming, but we were ready for them. I lined up a wonderful lightning bolt shot through 4 of them and we cleared them out and moved forward. We have more fighting yet to come.

Well, the trolls left the dam smelling lovely. We started searching the upper levels of the inner dam and basically found very little. We found a staircase leading down behind a door that said that Wet Papa Grazul was through here. So down we went to give our regards.

We found a room at the bottom with a pool, the ranger went in and out pops a troll with a trident. Apparently this was Wet Papa. He killed the ranger and took down the cleric in quick succession. I was hitting him, but taking damage as well, not a good trade for me. Finally, we finished him off and he slid to the bottom of the pool. We explored the area and found a construct guarding the controls. We decided not to mess with anything and it didn’t attack us.

Further exploration led us to a room with a couple portcullises. Behind one was a devil of some sort, the other had a pile of ash. The runes were in Thassilonean and after some study and a little help from the group, I figured out that a certain type of creature would be trapped if they stepped onto the mark, but anyone else could step on it and make the dam work. There were consequences as some life force was required to make the dam work.

So I stepped in and was promptly drained accordingly. The rest of the group were talking to the other beast and among themselves so it was a somewhat hasty decision, considering the other beast had been there for thousands of years. Out of the entire group, barring mishap, I would be the longest lived, so if anyone could recover I could.

After the dam started working, we tried to figure out what to do with the ranger. Zandu spoke with dead and the ranger apparently was open to coming back, so Zandu magically travelled to Magnimar to get what he needed. The cost of said feat was paid for by the trident recovered from Wet Papa. We spent the day at the dam and travelled to Fort Rannick to get directions to Mount Hook.

We got back to Turtleback Ferry, got cold weather supplies as the trip up was going to be treacherous and cold. We went to Fort Rannick, helped them for a day; spent the night in a dry bed after eating a full meal of deer. Early the next morning found us on our way to Mount Hook. The only thing of mention was the ogre we found that had been charmed by some pixies and was alternately trying to stand on his head and dancing. We killed the ogre to the chagrin of the pixies. It’s cold and snowing as we travel and we’re nearing the top.

We arrived back at the ferry, jumped on and started pulling ourselves across the river. Wasn’t easy, but we got there. Before we were able to tie off, we spotted a large snake trying to get into a small boat pinned up against the general store. The boat had a woman and 3 small kids. The snake had wrapped up one of the kids before we were able to do much. I cast fly on the Davok so he could go help them. I stayed in the boat with Simon to help tie off the boat, otherwise it would capsize. The orc got to the snake with some arrows, the snake left. The druid turned into a large roc to try to go help the kids and woman along with Davok.

Simon was tying up the boat when the snake attacked him. This damn thing could have eaten someone’s grandfather. It promptly wrapped Simon up. I stepped up and hit it with a shocking grasp. It worked effectively. We as a group managed to get to higher ground and the biggest damn monster I’ve ever seen came out of the water.

This tentacled, snake like black beast breathed a sick noxious gas. Honestly, I am a little sketchy as to what happened from there, but I am very happy that I had mirror image up as it took those down with its first two attacks. Its third attack however worked just fine. It wrapped me up, but let go as the water started receding, and swam downstream. I got healed back up as I was near unconsciousness.

The group helped do what they could for the town, which wasn’t much, but we were there. We thought it through and went to see what was wrong with the dam. After traveling several hours, we arrived at the dam and found a long narrow staircase leading to a small cave like opening. Inside we found an ettin, yeah.

I tried a new spell and it worked, tiring the creature out so he wasn’t as able to attack. We took him down quickly and continued on to the dam. After some scouting by Davok and Moxie, we tried to lure them to us. It worked to a limited affect as we also moved up to them.

They all seemed tired and beat up, apparently they had fought the same beast previously as it came down the river. We dispatched seven ogres and moved to a building, probably some sort of control center.

Well, not to be disappointed, we found four or five trolls and after some early issues we dropped them and I set them on fire. Now to clear the rest of the building and hopefully fix the damn dam.

Well the group apparently decided to leave the next morning to go to the swamp. That evening after I spoke with the town leader, I had some wine and relaxed. I’m not looking forward to spending more time in the swamp and rain. Maybe I should join Friedrich in going back to Magnamar. Oh well, I’ve got a couple days before the ship leaves. Meanwhile, a human came in and introduced himself, apparently the town leader sent him to find me. He was a druid and was looking into the unnatural rain here. I gave him a short version of what we’d been doing and where we were going the next day. He asked if he could join us and although a drunk and boisterous Simon didn’t help at all, the druid decided to join us.

Bright and early mid-morning, the group got going, across the ferry into the swamp. We came across a little town called Bitter Hollow. There was a small general store there, run by a swamp person. The only comment I can make is interesting. He told us about a pathway into the swamp. He’d seen the commander come through a few times but hadn’t seen him lately.

While we were on the wooden walkway, a pixie came begging for help. We were pretty sure he was leading us to the nymph. Off the walkway and into the swamp we went. After traveling for quite a while, we fought some trolls. We beat them down and set them on fire. The pixie lead us deeper into the swamp and finally to a clearing. Five of us walked into the clearing, the nymph appeared and we were blinded. Great. Have I ever mentioned how much I like nature? Anyway, despite my anger, she asked for help. She wanted the body of her lover, the commander. She was convinced that he’s dead and at the ogre ridden Hook Mountain.

Zandu healed my blindness and we found a small hill to rest on. The druid created a shelter for the evening. At some time, the Pixie left us 3 bags of Pixie dust. Part of our deal with him to help was the pixie dust. He still owes us 3 if we finish the job.

We headed back to town the next day after Zandu healed the rest of the blindness. When we got back to Bitter Hollow a man was waiting with horses to get us. Apparently there is a dam north of town and the water had risen over the dam and was flooding Turtleback Ferry. They wanted our help.

We decided to empty out the grounds by drawing them to us so they couldn’t attack us en masse. Worked pretty well, all things considered. Getting hit by one of them isn’t good for my health. I didn’t help much, but after I got some much needed healing by Zandu, I tried to get back into the fight and helped where I could. We go as many as we could to come to us and then went out to get the rest.

At about the same time, the remaining rangers and Shelelu came bursting back into the fort, only to find more than they thought. We finished them off.

After a quick meeting, we decided to hole up in the fort, help put what we could back together, before going back to Turtleback Ferry. We figured that Lucretia was headed there, but we found some information about the commander of the fort and a probable relationship with a nymph.

We did what we could at the fort, and took off the next morning. It’s still raining, miserable weather. We made it back to town, no sign of Lucretia. I told the priest, he seems to be in charge of the town or at least some sort of leader, what had happened at Fort Rannick, no boats or visitors had been reported, she’ll probably have to use some sort of disguise.

My bluntness seems to be taken as rudeness by these people. As short as their life is, and as brash as they seem to be, when someone is short with them they are almost offended. Honestly, I’m beginning to feel used by all these people. I’d think if one of our party comes back to report what’s happening or happened, they’d make it a priority to listen. Oh, well, I’m not used to them yet, I’ve got time, I wonder how many generations of them it will take.

Well, that's what I get for sleepwalking through the caves. We walked right in to Lucrecia's (the lamia we actually wanted to find) room. Well, she asked us a couple questions, like if we'd join her side. We declined and it was on. Unfortunately, she went and dimension doored out before we could finish her. That spell is beginning to piss me off. I need to figure out how to counterspell it.

We went exploring the inside of the fort and began running into ogres. One by one, they weren't so bad. Then we found a bunch of them...and the lamia. They're some hard hitters, and damnit if some of them can't cast also.

I was involved in the fight with the lamia and apparently daddy ogre at first. I hit the daddy with a shocking grasp and that seemed to finish him off. Then I tried for the lamia. That damn snake traded some shots then dimension doored again. I've got to learn to counterspell it quick. Making me angry.

So I went and joined the fun with the rest of the ogres. Exciting and fearsome fight. Simon was laughing hysterically on the floor. Zandu was mostly doing healing. Friedrich was blind again. As a group, we managed to finish them off. We've still got the ones outside and the lamia to deal with. Time to shorten the snake by a head. I want to rest and drink and well, maybe worship again. I deserve it.

For some reason, I think it's the rain, I just didn't feel like venturing deep into the caves to find, first lizards then ogres with a probable lamia at the end. Have I mentioned I want a vacation?

But, my vote doesn't count, so we went wandering around dashed through open field swam a pond climbed a wall only to fall on my ass walking through the opening of a cave. Fun so far.

Followed a passage, found secret door that was more like a wall, peaked out and almost got spotted. Retreated to find and smoke out lizards through different door. Lizards chased/smoked into ogre sleeping area, now the fight's on.

What were we thinking?

Well, mommy whipped out some of her spells when she figured that the guards she had in her room failed to hurt us. I got slowed and Friedrich got blinded. Due to the effects of the slow spell, my usual tactics were difficult. Other companions got involved in hand to hand and in my line of fire for spells. I took a wait and see approach.

Meanwhile, Friedrich handed me a potion to counteract the slow spell. I’ll just say at this time, never trust a potion from a blind alchemist, more about that later. While the fight raged, the old hag used dimension door and slipped out. Some of the party figured she went to the basement, others went upstairs. She actually slipped outside to the barn and had been engaged by the rangers that we’d left out there and Shalelu. By the time most of us had made it outside to re-engage in combat, the half-orc had finished her off with a volley of arrows. Rikert had run downstairs by himself and Moxie was left upstairs.

We found the rangers injured but ok. Shalelu, however, was about 3 foot tall, with weapons of similarly reduced status. It was about this time that some of the party members decided to go back in and find our other party members. I was having some other issues.

It was at this time that I started feeling sick and nauseous. I think Friedrich may be re using his vials. I need to speak to him about that. I don’t know what else had been in that vial, but it didn’t set well with me and I remained outside the house with the rangers. Hindsight being what it is, maybe it was the house and things in the house, but I’m not going to hurry to trust a blind alchemist.

We followed the cougar deeper into the forest. He seemed to be certain of his destination. We came to a trail and followed it for several miles. It led to a farmstead. The farmstead no longer housed humans, but more ogrekin. One very large creature seemed to be minding the crops, but poorly. We split up, with our new half-orc companion sneaking closer and us continuing down the path. It was raining since we left and it wasn’t letting up now.

There were two ogrekin outside besides the large one minding the crops. They saw us and charged right after the large one saw us and roared. Our attacks felled the three monsters and we proceeded into the barn.

We found several more in the barn and set to taking them out also. When we finished, we found a barred door in a wall dividing the barn. There was a catwalk that went down the two sides of the barn and led to a small door on each side. When we went through the door, we found the bottom half of the barn was covered in webs with a large hole funneling down into the dark. There was a cage with 3 men in it; they appeared to be unconscious at least. We freed the men and killed the creature that someone called an ogre spider.

It turned out that one of the men in the cage was the one that Sheleilu and the half-orc were looking for. The other two gave us a rundown on what had been going on with Fort Rannick and the Black Arrows. Apparently both were overrun by ogre kind and they had reinforced the fort.

We left them to go explore the house. We found what appears to be young ogrekin and we disposed of them. Then we made a discovery of piles and piles of baby bones that appear to belong to female baby ogrekin. All of them had their necks broke. Looks like only the males survive.

We found the “mother” along with 3 zombies and more ogrekin in a room. We are in the process of killing all of them.

Well, we left Whistledown and continued on up river to Turtleback Ferry. There we made arrangements for Ramad’s body to be sent back to Sandpoint. We went into town and got rooms at the local inn.
We cleaned up a bit and were grabbing a bite to eat when we were approached by the local religious figure. We spoke to him about things going on here and let him know we were going to look into it. Many of us went across the street to the tavern. I got some good wine and bought a round for the house, apparently a couple rounds. Moxie and Zandu were performing and getting the house kind of lively.
A half-orc over heard people referring to us as “the help” being sent down from Magnamar. He came over to the table and we spoke. He was here looking for a ranger friend of his that he hadn’t heard from in a while. The name caught Sheleilu by surprise as this was who she was looking for also. Her connection is a bit tedious as he was her mother’s lover and he left her when a dragon attack killed her mother.
Anyway, he said he wanted to go with us and I agreed and explained to some of the other members who were not busy at the time. He said he’d been in town for a few days and had noticed some things but it was a combination of our journey and investigation that led to any real information.

I started asking some locals about things going on in the area. They didn’t want to talk, but alcohol loosens the tongue. It appears that there was a boat that supplied gambling and women for those who paid. The boat was called the Paradise and it sunk about 2 weeks ago. To get into the special rooms, you had a tattoo put somewhere on your body. I think there’s some sort of underhanded religious thing going on here and that’s what the sibling to Xanesha was referring to in the letter.

We left the next morning in the cold rain and traveled north toward Fort Rannick. We went so far and then some party members heard guttural singing and a cat scream. Some of us ventured into the woods to check it out despite some of our military type members saying not to. We found a fire cat in a bear trap and multiple ogre types and lots of dogs coming. We struggled to get the cat out of the trap because the cat was apparently a druid or ranger companion animal, according to the half orc.

About the time we got the cat out two ogrekin showed up with a bunch of dogs. Zandu, Simon and Rikert had moved up us by that point and the fight was on. There was a short discussion, the animal companion was trying to get Sheldor to go with him back to his master. We killed the dogs and the ogre kin and now we’re going to follow the cat deeper into the woods. Maybe this ranger or druid will be able to give us some information on what is going on around here.

The mayor decided to ask for our assistance. Outside the note we had found, he had been receiving requests for assistance in Turtleback Ferry. Apparently the newest member of the group, Simon, really wanted to work. Didn’t negotiate or anything, just took the offered 750 and said we’d go. Despite having other plans or desires, we left in 3 days.

When we got back to our inn, Sheleilu was there. We hadn’t seen her since back in Sandpoint. We got her caught up on our exploits and asked about hers. She had heard that we were in Magnamar and she was going to ask us to go with her to Turtleback Ferry. The local rangers, The Black Arrows, had been having issues and she was going there to help. She offered to go with us and suggested we go by boat; it would save a week of travel.

So we got on a boat, and up the river we went. It was fairly uneventful the first couple nights. We ran into some swamp giants that seemed to be trying to take a toll. They killed Ramad, with a rock. We killed one and the other escaped. Now we have to get to the next town and figure out what to do. I had been working on something for Annie and Rikert wants an upgrade to his armor. I want a vacation.

And up and up we went. Zandu cast a couple spells on me as I stayed behind as the group started up the stairs. We had finished searching the ground level, finding some stuff where the flesh golem had stayed and his magical scythe. We put the scythe in the wagon for later retrieval and took the cloak and monetary with us.

Not entirely trusting the stairs or Zandu, I was tentative in walking in the air, but used it when the front members came to a gap in the stairs. With Zandu able to walk in the air also, we were able to help the group across a quick rope bridge and we continued up.

We reached a point where we could see a little further up the stairs and noticed a couple things. First, there were more gaps and bigger ones that we would try to avoid. Second, one of the bells was tilted and slightly moving. Then suddenly it was falling. The bell clipped several party members and with two exceptions, left them hanging from the stairs.

I forgot to mention that part way up we were paused when someone entered the lower level and hollered at us. Apparently the guard captain told a sergeant that we were in need of some help. So this Simon showed up and came along for the ride. Well, other than some yelling back and forth, that’s the short of his introduction. Good sized human that appears to be a fighter. Well he fell 50 feet or so back to the ground when the bell hit him. The loud crash and cursing was about all that was heard.

Zandu went down and got him, probably healed him a little. Annie’s fox wasn’t so lucky. The bell killed the fox and it fell down to the bottom in the rubble with the bell. Needless to say, Annie was upset.

After all this, we decided to try another tactic. Zandu cast fly on Simon, and he flew up, grabbed Rikert and went to the top. Zandu grabbed Friedrich and I grabbed Ramad and went to the top. The last stair level had three faceless stalkers waiting for us. With no way around we had to engage. Rikert took one and I tried to let Ramad cast at another, while Sheldor and Zandu fought the last. Simon was trying to keep some distance and fired a bow. The problem was still the stairs. Very weak and wobbly and with the fighting, something had to give and it did. Sheldor dropped 20 feet or so to some stairs directly below, luckily. But the way was clear, as the three beasts were dispatched and thrown off the stairs.

We entered a rookery and again Sheldor asked some questions of the resident ravens. They weren’t as helpful as the last batch. Some of us geared up with spells, me included, and we went up to the roof. There was a balcony on the outside leading up to the roof with a 3 foot ledge around the edge of the roof. There was a statue of an angel with some chests and a mattress under it. We saw nothing else until a flying monster of some sort. Ramad hit it with a lightning bolt, which caused a reaction. About that time, Friedrich came over the edge of the roof. He was attacked by a lamia.

Xanesha struck from invisibility with a long spear which cleanly drove through and the barbs were an added torture as it was removed. Friedrich crawled back over the edge to remove himself from combat. There was a sudden burst of despair that washed over the group, but we were not affected except for Annie, who was still suffering affects of the loss of her fox. Xanesha had multiple images surrounding her, meaning that actually hitting her would be difficult. The fighters went to work and I got ready.

Ramad tried some spells, and I did also. Mine fizzled and so did Ramad’s early attempt. She had some resistance to magic and the fighters were having a tough time doing damage. I copied her tactics and cast mirror image and then vanish to sneak into the fight to avoid moving through her reach and getting a free attack as I closed. My first strike dropped her final image, leaving us to fight just her. After Zandu did some burst healing, Friedrich hit her with a bomb. My second attack coursed lightning through her as I got through her defenses, both magical and physical. She jumped (slithered) away and we had to re-engage, meaning she’d get to attack us as we moved in. We did, she did, but we finally finished her off. Even Annie, suffering as she was, got a shot in. By the way, the flying monster disappeared; Sheldor was trying to find it.

We gathered everything up from the chests and roof and got back to the bottom. We reported to the guard captain and gave him the update. We also turned over the journal and a note we found from a sibling, the tone says sister, but that one is doing similar stuff in Turtleback Ferry. It turns out that the Lord Mayor was a future target.

We got word that the Mayor wanted us to join him for dinner. He thanked us for what we did and rewarded us. We need to stick around town for a few days to sell off some stuff before we head back to Sandpoint.

Well, we searched the mill and found some stuff and a journal/ledger belonging to the leader of this group. Turned out it was some judge or high ranking official in the town, but I’m kind of jumping ahead here. We finished searching and moving bodies, including Uther and Ironbriar. We found some messenger Raven’s up top in a rookery and our druid spoke with them. He determined that they communicated with Ironbriar through this method with a tower. He talked one of them into flying to the tower, turned out to be the Shadow Clock in Underbridge, and circling it. Ramad cast fly on himself and followed for as long as he could and landed on a roof. After the raven returned, I went and found some guards and asked them to get the captain of the guard from the Hells.

When he showed up, with Ramad in tow, we explained the situation to him and who was involved. He was very disturbed. He said he’d clean up the mess at the mill and inform the Lord Mayor of the situation and progress. We told him our next step was something going on at the Shadow Clock.

We sold off the stuff we didn’t want and the skin saw masks and Ironbriar’s mask to a church to destroy. Split up the cash, traded in some weapons for weapons that we could use. I finally put some of my stuff to use and made Friedrich’s weapon magical and gave Rikert’s a permanent keen edge. I’ll have to look into that for my own weapon. Visited my temple again.

Zandu has been watching the Shadow Clock, but nothing has been seen to my knowledge. We finished deciphering the ledger, which was written in three languages and found that Xanesha and Ironbriar had been in contact.

Well off we went to storm the castle. We entered the clock tower and started looking around. We were attacked by a flesh golem. Magic doesn’t work and adamantine weapons will hurt him. Well we were fresh out of adamantine and had lots of magic. It took several rounds, but we finally destroyed it. So now it’s up the stairs we go. We must stay 10 feet apart, the stairs aren’t stable.

Apparently my god will have to wait. The party decided to go to the lumber mill and watch the comings and goings. Nobody did either. Sometime around midnight we broke in. Zandu used a silence spell and they had to break down the door as Moxie wasn’t there to pick the lock. They moved in and I stayed back until the silence passed by me then I and Ramad moved in. We searched through the lowest level and found there was no way up, just a bunch of water wheels and gears.

We went around to the next level and same protocol, silence followed by breaking in the door. Again I and Ramad hung back to allow the spell to get away from us. The lower three levels were clear of people, at least that we found, but up we went and we heard voices on the top level, chanting, ritual like, then a scream.

Up we went without really knowing what we were going into. Apparently, they had captured another noble and were carving on him. The fight commenced.

There were 13 of them or so and the main guy vanished right before our eyes and so did I. My initial thought was to join the combat, but things evolved so quickly that I decided to go after the big guy, whoever that was. It took a couple round of maneuvering, and I wasn’t very quick to react, but just as I was about to move to the wounded guy, right beside he the leader appeared, and attacked Zandu. So I returned the favor. A new spell delivered through my scimitar resulted in a little damage and a little added frustration was when he finally decided to attack me he couldn’t decide which one to hit as the mirror images were there to protect me. It took several rounds and some help from others, but he finally fell along with the other evil doers. Apparently during the combat, Uther killed several and was mobbed and killed as well. The party will miss his firepower in combat. I have personal feelings toward his demise that I will keep to myself.

We need to search the mill before we leave and hope we have time before anyone shows up. The recently saved should be able to attest to his rescue and maybe there are more clues leading us further up the chain.

Ok, what to do what to do. We were stunned and needless to say, weary. He invited us in to join him for dinner, after a short conversation. We mentioned the murders and mutilations and he paled, reacting much like the Aldern we all knew would. Not wanting to be rude, some of us joined him at the table. His servants were bringing out food, and that’s when the fight started.

The two servants were behind me and they attacked. I was stabbed and grappled. Before we could react I was attacked again and nearly dead. I broke free and used the chair as a shield in addition to improving my own defense. The others joined the fray. Their disguises discarded, they were some sort of shape changing creatures called ugothol, not Aldern and his man servants.

Zandu did a healing burst and I felt a little better and went on the attack. I was unable to hit the foul creature that continued attacking me, but I kept him occupied while other party members continued attacking. Uther fired several shots, which alerted the neighbors to the fight. We finally dispatched the three aberrations and started searching the house. We noticed several people watching the house and figured we had very little time.

To sum up, Moxie found a hiding spot with some cash and a deed with a journal. We read the deed and found that the Foxglove family was in bed with the Brothers 7. Whoever they are. That was all the time we had as the guard finally showed up and started beating on the door. We were taken into custody. The wagon I was in, had the Lord Mayor in disguise and he started asking questions about who we were and what we were doing.

Uther, the hafling, and I were in the wagon and we told him everything we knew. He found us to be truthful that we were following a trail of murders form Sandpoint to here and all we wanted was to find the person behind it. He basically saw us as an easy, expendable group to lead the investigation without losing any of his guards. We were kept for a few hours and released after dark to start our investigation.

We found a new inn and split up the money. I am going to go find my temple.

I loved the rest and it was necessary. Oathday and Fyreday went according to plan. I found the items I was looking for. Some of the group took Hemlock back out to the Foxglove manor to show him what we’d found and done. They buried the bodies. I stayed in town, went back down to Cracktooth’s Tavern to enjoy some performances and wine before returning to the Rusty Dragon for evening meals on Oathday. Fyreday found me successfully shopping for some items. With winter coming on, I needed some warmer clothing and boots and cloak. My armor needed an upgrade also. All things considered, I felt pretty good.

We had a couple items that we couldn’t sell for what we wanted in Sandpoint and the group wanted to follow the clues we found or got from Foxglove. So Moonday we were off to Magnamar. About halfway there was a very common inn. We spent the night and were back on the road the next morning.

We arrived in Magnamar late the next evening and were directed to a dock area inn. Rikert went to his family’s house and we found out that Barus was from a part of Magnamar called Underbridge. One night in Iron Fang Inn was enough for me. I am moving to nicer digs for our duration.

There is a huge bazaar each day around the docks and we went there to sell our items. We managed to sell one we’ll try again with the other. Found some good wine and picked up a couple bottles. I need to find a temple.

There are rumors about nobles or rich people being murdered in town. The guards are keeping it quiet, but people are actually upset and concerned. The murders aren’t normal and the bodies have been marked. We don’t know details, but we assume it’s like the murders back in Sandpoint with the bodies marked with the seven point symbol.
With a little help from Rikert’s dad, we found Foxglove’s manor. We decided to try the front door approach. We have keys and we believed one of them will open the manor here in Magnamar. So we went in.

Things were a little odd, since the manor had been boarded up a couple days earlier, so we were a little paranoid. We got to the door and Moxie recommended a specific key. We opened it and went in. Nobody appeared to be watching. We got inside and heard a noise that sounded like silverware on plates. We were prepared to about anything to walk through that door except for Aldern Foxglove, welcoming us to his house like old friends. We all would have sworn we just killed him.

We followed the revenant or at least the direction it went deeper into the cavern. We couldn’t hear any sounds of a fight or her shrieks so it was move forward and hope we find where she went. We came across a cavernous hole with steep slick sides and a narrow pathway. We were set upon, or maybe I should say that Rikert was set upon by 4 goblin ghasts. They singled him out, ignoring the rest. They surprised the group and we were slow to respond. I know I and Barus hit a couple of them and we started to thin them down. Rikert fell to one of their wounds, and they set upon Xandu. Xandu tried to move away from them, but they seemed determined to finish him and moved with him. About the time that he moved away from them, three ghouls attacked from a side passage. For a bit things got interesting. Barus hit all the ghouls with a spray of fire and killed all the ghouls. The horrid stench from the ghasts rocked nearly all of us and made attacking difficult, but we made it through and destroyed all the undead foes.

We slowly made our way down the path to what we finally saw was a door that the revenant had apparently destroyed to track down Aldern. We approached the door and cautiously entered. Inside, we found the revenant down on the ground apparently defeated and a battered Aldern Foxglove. Aldern seemed almost possessed as he broke down and cried, saying he never meant to hurt her. That she said they would protect her. That he had sent some of the tumor ridden mice to town. Apparently, about that time “His Lordship” took over and basically attacked Xandu. I stepped forward and struck him down.

We found several things in the room, from items stolen from Xandu to strange depictions of him, i.e. paintings, drawings and a cameo. There was an odd wall with a nearly human looking imprint in it. We disturbed it and destroyed it. We think it was the soul of Aldern’s grandfather. We ended up finding references to him trying to become a liche in later rooms, but I’m getting ahead of myself. We searched and removed items of worth from the room and then determined to return and properly search the entire house to make sure we had removed all the undead. We had one more battle of note. A horde, or plague, of tumor ridden rats attacked us in the pantry. We destroyed them and found some wonderful wine in a hidden door, thank you Moxie. Uther and someone went back to town to get a wagon. They returned and we loaded everything up and went back to town. The undead crows had all left at sometime.

I can’t wait until Fyreday as I have some shopping to do. First, however, I have a bath to take, and wine to drink.

Up we went, to a second story of dust and mold. I spent a lot of time in hallways and not in rooms, but we’ll get to that. The first room that I remember was another with stained glass where it should have provided a beautiful view of the ocean. These windows depicted various things used in necromantic magic. According to Friedrich, the various items were used specifically in the process to become a liche, a very powerful undead wizard. It is at this point that I forget some specifics. One of the rooms that we entered, something happened to me. I was overcome with the feeling that I had tumors and masses growing out of my face. The itching and overwhelming desire to remove them took me to the point of scratching and itching until I scratched and scarred my face. Nearly as soon as it started it stopped, but the damage was done.

Another room we ventured into had the remnants of a bedroom. There was a picture turned facing the wall. Moxie used a small magic spell to gently turn the picture around. Now, when this happened, unbeknownst to us, Rikert was overwhelmed with the incredible hatred of women. Moxie happened to be standing in front of him when he struck and suffered a severe wound from Rikert’s sword. Not knowing what was going on, she returned the attack. Once again, the haunts were at work. No more had Moxie struck than Rikert came out of it and immediately tried to make amends. Healing was offered and done and we were off to the next room. Another contained eight family portraits, including Aldern and his sisters. Apparently some people saw the sisters fog over and the rest had various awful fates happen to their bodies. One was burnt and broken; another drew a knife across his throat. I don’t recall all the various poses of death, but these were various haunts and hints we’ve experienced through the house. Ramad and moxie ventured into a room. There appeared to be a block of wood sitting on the desk and Ramad picked it up and tried to slice open his throat. It turned out to be a dagger, not some wood. We continued searching the floor and found more stairs going up.

The final floor had various doors and stuff, but there was sobbing and crying coming from a room. Moxie carefully opened the door with Annie and in they went. There was an obviously undead woman sitting in front of the mirror. It was the same woman that was in the picture when Rikert attacked Moxie. Xandu said it was a Revenant and that it would lead us to Aldern. Annie moved the mirror and she shrieked. Xandu made some comments about staying out of its way so I did. She went down the hallway and down the stairs all the way to the ground floor.

She apparently clawed her way through the floor, revealing an old stone staircase going down to lower levels. We tied a rope to a table and started going down. Xandu was first with Ramad trying to keep up. She tore off down the stairs and ran through a cavern. Being the last one down, I heard a battle with some ghouls, but happened upon the scene after they had been dealt with.

Well, we finished with the scarecrows. There were about 16 more to look at 1 surviving farmer and a couple real scarecrows and the rest were ghouls. One by one we took them down as carefully as possible, without burning the fields. We then returned with the farmer and cared for his needs. We decided to burn the barn as there was no real way to clean or bury the mess adequately and quickly enough. We returned to town.

We saw to the needs of the farmer and decided not to really share much with Hemlock. I still wasn’t sure if we could trust him or not, but he told us that Foxglove had left the road to go to his old house and that was the last he had seen of him. We then decided to venture to the Foxglove mansion the next day. We arrived late morning and surveyed the exterior then proceeded to enter.

You’ll have to excuse my crude descriptions but the first floor wasn’t what I was expecting. Things were dusty, moldy and dim with lots of doors and windows. The group started venturing forth and soon I and Friedrich split from the group to investigate a short hallway. We found a passage to what I believe is the main entry, with some sort of musical device in it. We then found a washroom with a basin in it. There was a disgusting tumor riddled rat in the basin. It leapt out of the basin and tried to attack me. I killed it. We kept moving forward and found another room with a fireplace. There seemed to be some sort of disturbance in the air around the fireplace, but I couldn’t decipher it.

About that time, Rikert and a couple others came through another door and entered into the area with the fireplace where Friedrich and I were. We started to re-gather and I went through a room that I was sure had some arcane properties, but I couldn’t decipher it. Friedrich said it had something to do with the stained glass windows. There were various beasts, a treant, and others that appeared to be being sucked into a box and the beasts appeared to be afraid. The group had found a library and many members seemed to be overcome with various short term fears or possessions. Xandu said it was haunts and there appears to be stories accompanying the haunts. We may need to pay attention to what’s being done to us so we can find out what happened as that appears to be what the haunts are hinting at. Moxie and Xandu left the manor under the affects of a haunt and found that there were thousands of undead crows outside the manor. We won’t be leaving until we find a way to deal with them. Hopefully something is controlling them and we can destroy them. We found stairs going up and that’s where we’re going.

Well the other group got back to town late that evening. They apparently had investigated the barn and found the same foul odor, but little else. Then went on to the sanatorium and spoke with Graste. He was sick with a disease, but delivered a message. The sanatorium manager had arranged to rent some space out to an individual that turned out to be creating undead. There was a fight with him and a giant rat and some zombies. The zombies and others were dispatched and the group licked its wounds and returned to Sandpoint.

The next morning, while breaking our fast, the deputy that had assisted us with the search of Harker’s residence walked into the Rusty Dragon and asked us to go see the Sheriff. Apparently, something had happened outside of town a few miles and a survivor had run into town to report it.

When we arrived, there was a very animated older human ranting about scarecrows killing people. Moxie calmed him down and he told us a short story about problems at a farm. That some people decided to take care of it and scarecrows killed them and dogs. He ran away. Sheriff asked us to go investigate his claims.

We traveled along the road then took a path to a farmstead. The family there was packing up to leave. Zandu spoke with them they told us a story that all the problems were south of the river and none of the crops had been harvested south of the river, even though they were ready. He said he had seen what appeared to be a scarecrow grab a woman and haul her back into the corn, that’s when he decided to leave. He pointed out a short cut across the river to the area we were looking for. We continued down some farm paths and came across another farmstead. It was empty of people and livestock, but it looked like a fight had taken place there.

We finally arrived at the location the old man sent us to. There were LOTS of scarecrows in the fields. The first one we came to was nothing but straw. Moxie had put an arrow into it. The next one jumped right off the stand and attacked us. We dispatched it. Upon further inspection, we determined it was a ghoul, some sort of undead being. Annie was going to burn down the fields I told her no. At that point there was a disagreement as to what was going to happen. From my perspective, burning the fields accomplishes very little and puts us in great danger as fire has a mind of its own. We wouldn’t be able to find anything out about what was really happening and if anyone was alive, not to mention wasting what may be a very important food supply for Sandpoint. It nearly came to all out combat. We proceeded down paths toward the buildings, seeing more and more scarecrows scattered through the fields. Moxie shot the next closest on our way and it flinched, then stopped moving. Uther and myself went to investigate and found that it was a woman, tied to the cross bar that was or rather had been sick with ghoul fever and could have been saved. The arrow had killed her. We continued to the home and spread out. I approached the door and was assaulted by a foul odor causing me to be sick and nauseated. I cast a spell at an opponent and backed up. Three ghouls and another dead creature were inside with a recently deceased body on the table with blood everywhere inside the house. Two of the creatures ran out the back of the house and two attacked Zandu and I at the front door. It took some effort, but with some help from Friedrich and Rikert, we dispatched the two at the front door. Three other ghouls had approached to attack Uther and Friedrich; these also were dispatched after a couple segments. Apparently Moxie had climbed down from Rikert’s horse and went to look in the window. The two undead that had ran out the back came around from behind and attacked her. One bit her and she locked up in a paralytic state. Rikert and possibly others came to her rescue, chopping down what turned out to be a ghast and the ghoul that ran out the back of the house. The remaining ghouls were destroyed and quiet reigned over the area again. A note was found pinned to the body on the table, once again addressed to Zandu. I began walking around the back of the house and decided we needed to quickly go check the other scarecrows to see if any of them were still living beings that can maybe shed some light on what happened here.

We walked to the garrison and went downstairs to the sheriff’s office. Some of us went to speak with the other lumber mill worker. He had found the bodies. He wasn’t overly willing to talk, looked tired. He finally told us some stuff about the dead guy and Ven’s daughter getting together fairly regularly and that Harker had been cooking the books. Might be a motive for the owner to kill him, but it doesn’t feel right to me. Something unnatural is out there. Rikert, the new fighter, went down to talk to Ven with Zandu and the new wizard. It didn’t go well, Ven was pissed. The sheriff told us that the other bodies that were found all had the same Thassilonean symbols on them. They were in a barn outside of town. The group split up, I went to check out Harker’s house and look for a hidden stash of money that he had been stealing. Rikert and Moxie went with me. After Moxie found a stash of silver hidden in a secret compartment in a chest, we returned the money to the Sheriff explaining what we thought it was. We then went to the graveyard to make sure nothing strange had happened. Nothing appeared out of place there, and we asked the caretaker to keep his eyes open.
I returned back to the Rusty Dragon to eat and drink. I’m going to ask Moxie for some assistance in finding some stuff. She may know some of the vendor’s more than I do. The other group went out to see a witness of the attack in the barn. Apparently he was crazy after the attack and the sheriff sent him to a place out of town that cares for insane people. They will pass the barn and investigate that also.

It appears that my days were slightly off. Market day is Fyreday, not tomorrow, so I had a day to rest and recover. I used the basin to do an adequate job of clean up before falling into a deep sleep. A full bath will occur tomorrow after breakfast. I can cheat a little with some magic and did so. Breakfast was quick and light, and OH SO GOOD as a change from normal rations, then on to the bathhouse. Ordered a bath and soap and scrubbed until I was red. Some of the aches and pains reduced and new scars were visible from the fights. I need to look into more defensive options. It was while sitting in the bathwater easing some aches and pains that I began to take stock of the last week or so.
Arrival in Sandpoint had been fairly generic. The festival had started some problems to which I and the others had responded. We seemed to have gotten swept up into something where we could actually make a difference, at least temporarily. None of the events were targeted at us directly, but our assistance seemed to greatly affect the outcomes. I really don’t know any of these characters that have been involved in this period. I sometimes wonder how humans ever develop friendships living such a short period. I’ve known other elves with human friends; I just don’t know how that attachment is made. They seem like fast moving, bright lights that you know can’t last very long before they’re gone. Such energy. Lucien was an adequate fighter, he seemed able to take and deliver damage in equal amounts, just too many too quickly. I never had a chance to speak with Barus. He had been around for several years and it may have been interesting to share a drink and talk about a dwarven life. While dwarven greed is joked about it may actually have been his undoing, there’s always some truth in the rumors. I have noticed that some of my actions have been hasty. I need to be careful to not get drawn into the quick reaction of the humans; they always seem to be in a rush. I am still not sure what to make of some of our group. I know I’m not fond of all of them, at the best indifferent. Some might be quite enjoyable to hang around. Moxie might have an interesting tale, she’s certainly exuberant, but coy at times. Friedrich has proven useful and Zandu seems eclectic at the least, eccentric even. Annie’s cackling during battle was unnerving and odd in the middle of battle, but proved most helpful. Her culture and her past, however, keep her somewhat unapproachable.
I spent the day sitting in Cracktooth’s Tavern drinking a good bottle of wine and listening to music by various performers. Not quite getting drunk, not quite staying sober. Meal time brought me back to the Rusty Dragon for food and more drinking, and apparently bad dancing. I think to make it look good there has to be a scimitar involved and with all that wine, that seemed to be a bad idea. Toasts to Lucien and Barus were made and Moxie seemed to be a little flirty.
Market day arrived and the town was packed with people. Breakfast was a couple rolls and with some meat and cheese shoved in. I wandered around in fascination of all the things for sale. The group had divided up the spoils of Thistletop and I had a little cash to burn. I found the artist I had been looking for and bought a couple items to carry with me. I’ll suffer to carry them and hope for her favor. Other than that the day went quietly. I returned to the Rusty Dragon to lounge. We eventually all gathered together and Quink introduced a fellow traveler. He is a halfling spellcaster. He has some interest in the ruins so we said we’d take him out there. Quink was quick to decline. Apparently his idea of research is reading books. Ameiko had noticed a Paladin and introduced him to Moxie. Moxie brought him to the table. Apparently there is some concern that with our recent losses, we should add some members to our group. However, with losing two solid fighters, I’m a little concerned that we haven’t looked to adding a sellsword and maybe look to another healer for assistance. We’ll see what happens. The evening passed normally with drinking and fun. My discomfort was somewhat evident, although I’m not sure many know why.
A few days passed quietly for me; time in town, regular, good meals, fine wine, good bed, nice. The sheriff came to see us one morning at breakfast and reported that there had been an incident at the lumber mill. He told us a little, but asked that we investigate. There had been murder done. We arrived at the mill, new members in tow and the guard let us pass. One girl, Ven Vender’s younger daughter was, frankly, sawed in two. Quite an unpleasant site. Hanging on the wall was one of the mill owners with his face missing and a Thassilonean symbol carved in his chest. A very disgusting odor originated from various locations, smelling of dead rotting flesh. Tracks lead from the river up the side of the mill, and in various locations in the mill. They then went back to the river. Some of us went to the other side and found them again there, but they only came out and back into the river. There seemed to be an area where they waited, watching the mill. The sheriff told us that Ven was in jail, because it was possible he was involved, but after viewing the scene of this crime, I don’t think so, especially with his daughter’s death. A strange note was found at the crime. It was a note to Zandu. The sheriff doubted we were involved, but had to ask. Something strange is going on. I told Zandu I want to investigate a magic item he is wearing that was found on Nualia. I wonder if it’s connected as it is the same symbol carved on the body. The sheriff has also said that this is the 3rd crime scene. He’ll tell us more later.

Have I mentioned that I'm beginning to have an aversion to dogs. We gathered everyone into Nualia's chambers to rest and recover. Zandu and Friedrich showed up from where they had been. They brought all of us back to consciousness and healed many of our wounds, then we rested. We still had some areas to clear out to make sure we had finished with this area. I want a bath and a good meal and a bed.
We started opening some doors. Went to a room that had what appeared to be a pillar of gold coins and to the other side a set of double doors. The coins were an illusion of some sort. Through the double doors was a room with some sarcophagi and a statue. Started examining and were attacked by ghouls. We finished them off and Zandu found a secret door. We followed that path and apparently what used to be the treasury. There was a large golden helmet and Barus jumped in to try and get it. A large crab inhabited the helmet, caught Barus in one of it's claws and squeezed him to death. While this fight was going on, I was using a wand to shoot missiles into the crab. Friedrich got caught also, but we finished off the crab. We recovered the helmet and a bunch of gold silver and platinum. Also a couple magic items.
We started dragging all this stuff up back through the sarcophagi room and Moxie and Annie dropped a couple coins into a couple slots by the gold coin stack. The column withdrew and there was another room. A large fire burned but there appeared to be nothing else there, until I moved to the left side of the room. When what to my wondering eyes should appear but another tooth filled, hairy oversized goblin looking dog. That's what. Well, it didn't take long until I was knocked out then Zandu must have done one of his area affect heals because I came too still on the ground in the fight. I tried a couple things but I don't think they worked. The dog was finished off, the room searched and we left. We finally got out of Thistletop and managed to get a wagon up to us part way down. Loaded Lucien and Barus into the wagon with our loot. We returned to town, split up the loot. The town gave us some magic items for helping to unravel a seemingly huge plot. Me, I focused on a bath, a meal, and getting some food. There is a big market tomorrow, so maybe we can get rid of some of our other magic items and find some stuff to our liking. We'll see.

Frankly, I'm tired. I want a bed, a good meal and some good wine, followed by a nice, long sleep. We continued on through the maze, checking the various doors as we went. Well, lo and behold we open the door and there's a wizard. She was as surprised to see us as we her. Lucien yelled hold, she didn't and the fight ensued. Uther literally blew her head off with a shot. I picked up her stuff, the book may come in handy as will the wand and scrolls. Took a couple minutes to regroup and proceeded through a well hidden door Barus found.
We continued with Moxie and Barus up front, Moxie checking for hidden traps. We kept opening doors, and opened one that had a nice clean, polished section of hallway. We rigged a rope and Moxie, Barus and myself went down the hallway. We picked a door, and found our "prey". A hound and Nualia occupied the room. The hound went first, I hit it with a fire spell and barely singed it. It flew over me and joined a fight with Lucien and Moxie, that had quickly left after Nualia identified her. The hound blocked the end of the hallway, Barus was beside me and I had really no place to go. So I had to face Nualia. I'm not sure anymore if I hurt her or not, but she hurt me. I tied her up for a couple rounds while Lucien and Moxie fought the hound. Did I mention, it was Uther, Annie, Moxie, Lucien, Barus and myself? We had apparently lost Zandu, Sheldor, Friedrich, somewhere in the maze. The hound howled, sending Uther and Annie running. Can't complain, it happened to me previously. Anyway, the next thing I know, I'm waking up while Moxie is dumping a potion down my throat. I helped get Barus back to a safe place and now we need Zandu to show up and heal our wounds. Apparently Lucien died at the hands of Nualia. I've heard the hound did more damage, but dead is dead. Hopefully we'll clear out the rest of this hole in the ground and get back to the Rusty Dragon. I need a bath, as do many in the party. If I can find a way to burn this place to the ground so it can no longer be inhabited, I will.

Once again, I'll point out that I hate dogs. Don't know what kind of dogs were in that room, but once again I don't like them and they don't like me.
OK, we spent a night resting and recovering from our trek to the top and clearing out Thistletop. We then went downstairs. Fought a bugbear which was entertaining some female goblins. Don't know, don't want to know, didn't see don't have to unsee. The party killed him and the females. Found a room full of baby gobs, probably be kinder to kill them outright, but maybe all but one will starve. Or they'll become victims of some other predator.
Continued on. A human fighter attacked us? He spotted us and kind of ran, but immediately turned and hit Friedrich. That fight continued until Friedrich dropped. I joined the fight and was hit well also. He finally surrendered, when he realized we outnumbered him and would kill him. Xandu got Friedrich back up and we got some info from the fighter and took his armor and sword and eventually his money from his room.
We apparently entered a temple, well I did eventually. Barus opened the door dogs started howling, and I ran. Came to a ways down some hallways that we hadn't explored. I retraced my steps back and joined the battle and helped kill a dog. New skills are kind of cool. Did I mention I hate dogs.

The fighter came back and introduced himself to us as some sort of horseman and he and his horse were jumped by the goblins. His horse was apparently dragged deeper into the maze probably to their little fort on top of the hill. He needs to find his horse. His name is Exaybachuk. We continued into the maze and found an area with a "nest" where the druid's pet cat slept.
About that time Moxie and Barus got jumped. The party came into the fight and someone killed the cat and we nearly killed the druid, but he escaped through the brambles. He had cast an entangle spell and the group had to evade this barrier to join the fight.
After this, there was a decision for the spellcasters to try and rest a little to get some spells back. The rest of the party ventured further in and found a bridge to the main encampment. They got into a fight with about 12 goblins and 6 dogs at range. I'm personally glad I wasn't there as I and the dogs haven't got along. Apparently I'm tasty.
I got an extra spell and joined the fun. Came up and they had already crossed the bridge leading to the fort. We continued to clear out the encampment. I didn't offer much until the group entered the "throne" room where both the druid and Ripnugget were. Ripnugget was riding a lizard of some sort and the druid. The druid went down early as he had been damaged earlier. There were 8 goblins on stands high up on pillars in the room firing bows at us. Those with range weapons were trying to eliminate them as a threat while the rest of us did our thing. I hit Ripnugget and his lizard with a color spray and apparently the lizard failed and fell to the floor. I think I killed Ripnugget, but I'm not sure, it was a group success. We cut off as many ears as we could and some of the party dug through the outhouse closet and found a secret door that held a chest with tons of copper, silver and some gold. We're taking it back, we found the horse and he seemed to be uninjured but hungry.
There are stairs leading down, but I think we're going to rest before venturing forth to explore. We have a lot of injuries and a lack of spells. I am just beginning to understand some of my skills and they are getting better.

We came back from the tunnels and cleaned up and I wandered around town. The mayor spotted me and I let her know what was down there and what we had encountered and that we had basically eliminated those things. I told her a little about the various rooms and then a little about Tsuto’s journal. I told her what I could about the attacks and some future plans that we had read about in the journal and that we probably needed to let Ameiko know. Told her we had killed one of the goblin chief legends Koruvas, 3 armed guy that belches or pukes something. After we had that meeting it was decided to go check out Thistletop. We spent a couple days in town though, before we left. We needed a break and to heal up.
We began the journey to Thistletop and the woods were nasty thorny. We found a trio of goblins trying to dump a human down a hole. The human was tied up to a stick and the stick didn’t fit in the hole. We fought the goblins and I finished off one. We saved the human, but he went back to the opening, recovering from the shock apparently.
We progressed deeper into the tunnels. Did I mention that they’re only 4 foot tall? Makes fighting very difficult for the tall folks. We rounded a corner and found 11 goblins. I stunned a few of them to help with the odds, then it was a long drawn out fight to finish them off, finally killed one that was determined to either steal my wand or kill me.
During the fight, apparently Uther, who had reluctantly barely entered the tunnels, was attacked by the Thistletop leader. There was a fight there, and he was rendered unconscious. The chief was casting spells and the cat was fighting. Zandu took up the attack and the chief left. We still need to get to the top. Not going to be easy, they know we’re coming.

This journal entry I find difficult to write as I disagree with the actions our party took overall. The outcome may have been the same, but the path to the outcome wasn't of my liking.

We continued through the passageways finding various rooms. One of them is some sort of meditation room, but I don't know how it serves to calm. It appears to let you float. You can move around and breath, but ... how that would be calming to anyone is beyond me.

We explored various areas including what appeared to be some sort of pulpit and shrine. Beyond that was a double door. We entered and were immediately engaged by a Quasit? and some sinspawn. We dispatched the sinspawn and had injured the quasit "Erylium" but she had a nasty habit of disappearing so we were unable to locate it. We explored the chamber, knowing that she had fled. I had tracked her down the corridor a short distance, but was away from the group and did not want to face her alone. She seemed to have some self healing abilities. We deduced that there was some sort of summoning power artifact to Lamastu that could summon sinspawn. It only had a limited amount of power and each time it was used the power lessened. WE tried it, summoned one, killed it. This is where the paths went wrong. We were tired, and out of spells and wounded, but we weren't done. So we left and went back to town after the gunman threatened to shoot anyone that used the summoning rune again. I think we would have been better served staying there, in the room. We could have eliminated her using the rune and waited for her to return while regaining our strength. Maybe not healing completely, but we left and went back to town.

When the mayor checked on us, she kind of asked the same question, why did you leave. I was in the minority, so I held my tongue. That may not always be the case.

We returned the next day and basically fought the same battle, but with more spells. We got lucky and dazed her and grappled her and ended the threat.

Apparently my thoughts of speaking with the Mayor and some rest were premature. A couple party members briefly spoke with the Mayor to bring her into the loop. We went forward to clear out the tunnels. So down we went.

We started to travel down the main tunnel and our plan was to clean out the side paths. We’ve cleaned out the main areas eliminating about six monsters. The cleric told us they were called aberrations, ugly creatures that would bite and claw you. The bite was somewhat sickening, from the look of some of my companions, the dwarf and Pixie at least.

We finally came to the end of the tunnels and we had only found 1 pathway left to explore. It started inside a cell. Some of us have predicted that this part of the system is going to show us the old light area. There appear to be symbols in Thassilonean. We’ve encountered a torture area and more cells. Some sort of three armed creature that pukes blood and a room full of zombies. We’ve destroyed them all. I’m tired and have want of a bed. The adventure is exciting, but more chaotic than I’d like.

There was an area in the tunnels that lead to a beach, which lends truth to the rumor that these were smugglers’ tunnels. A goblin camp out on the beach showed at least where some of our adversaries have come from.

Moxie has earned her worth for me. She’s opened locked doors and been the first in a couple bad situations. This may not have been the wisest decision, but we may not have had many other options. As for the others in our party, they all seem to be pulling their fair share of the pain, both given and taken. The fighters have held their own and punished well our foes and the cleric has added both healing and damage to our enemies.

Our assault on the glassworks was successful and quite frankly rather painful. And assault is the appropriate word. Having observed the glassworks locked and windows concealed with curtains on a day that it should be open and running, we decided to enter forcefully through the back. However our shoulders weren’t up to the task, so we broke a window. Moving the curtain aside we found body parts and blood strewn on a table. Fearing the worst, Friedrich went in first and was immediately set upon by a minor horde of goblins. Uther fired into the fray from the window and I jumped through the window to assist. I dazed and stunned several of the little menaces with a spell and looked to press the attack against the others.
Thankfully at approximately the same time the cleric and some other members entered the room from other locations and the goblins split their group. The little devils were dispatched in a matter of a minute or so with Friedrich being the hardest pressed. Upon finishing up the area, we found Ameiko’s father encased in glass.
Not having accomplished our main objective, to find Ameiko, we continued on searching the rest of the building. There were stairs leading down and down we went. Upon checking various doors and such we found Tsuto, Ameiko’s brother, apparently waking up from a drunken nap. I tried to speak to him but he immediately attacked and basically knocked me out of the fight. I went ahead and finished my casting and passed out. When I next came to, I was in the hallway and the fight still raged. I went to see if I could help and Tsuto was running down the hallway, Uther and I in pursuit. I hit him with a minor spell of acid and Uther dispatched him with a shot from his gun.
That done, we returned to see that Moxie had found Ameiko, tied and beaten. Someone did some healing and then we proceeded to give her all the bad news about her brother and father. We found some journal stuff written by Tsuto and are trying to figure out what’s going on. The sheriff isn’t due back for a couple days so we’ll see what the Mayor thinks.

After a meeting with the Sheriff and an elven ranger from the area, he decided to travel to Riddleport to get some help. Too many people think something big is going on. Goblin tribes don’t act in coordination with each other and something must be pushing them together. The Sheriff asked us to monitor the town and kind of keep watch. Make the inhabitants feel safe. He left that night and took Foxglove and his servants with him. We broke into groups and shifts patrolled the town. On one of the nights, a leftover goblin was found hiding in a bedroom after killing a dog and the father. The goblin was dispatched and everyone was on a higher alert. Something happened with Eld and Ven Vendor's girl. She came asking for help, but it was some sort of show. Don’t know the details, but Daddy is none too happy.
While eating dinner one evening, we encountered Ameiko’s father, the local noble. He somehow tried to blame us for the attacks, told us to butt out of things and got into a heightened argument with Ameiko. From what I was told, as the argument was in Tian, it was something about not doing his wishes and he ended up disowning her. Apparently it’s a big deal in their culture. It seems to me that Ameiko is doing fine without him and he needs a lesson in manners. After a couple days of patrols, Ameiko turns up missing. A short investigation led to the discover of her brother being in town and a meeting she was supposed to go to which she hadn’t been seen from since. So we went to the glassworks building to find what we could find. Ameiko is a good person, from what I can tell and I feel some obligation as she has been a fine host.

I met my fellow combatants at the Rusty Dragon that evening. After cleaning up and joining them downstairs in the main area. Zandu, the half-elf cleric of Desne, was trying to entertain and was mediocre. The gnome, Moxie, was dancing and doing a fair job. The townspeople were in shock and really low. It seems of those joining the fight, besides the aforementioned cleric and gnome, were a woodsman elf, Sheldor, a dwarf “giant killer” named Barus, a well to do human fighter named Lucien. The human with the gun, Uther, appears to be from a well off family, but far down the heir list. The human that was throwing explosive vials seems to be reasonable for a human. He seems well educated and may be fun to talk to, he is named Friederich. I expect he’s from noble lineage as he tries to be proper. The female human that was helping us has not offered a name, but is called Girl or Tian. If I recall, Tian is a country and that is where she is from, so that is curious. We retired for the night after introductions and so forth, agreeing to meet in the morning to meet Foxglove.
The next morning arrived and after breakfast, I toured the town and assisted in clean up and repair as I could. Some townsfolk were thankful and gracious, others not so much. In their time of grief I did what I could to aid, but when I was a source of pain, I left to find other places to help. Foxglove paid us handsomely for our “saving him” from the goblins and asked us to go on a boar hunt. From his actions, I was not sure if he knew what he was doing, but agreed with the others to go along. The sheriff met us as we left after lunch to allow us to go through stuff that was found after the battle. There was a decent amount and divided among us. Tian must have been ill, as she was not around. Lucien, made an appearance late morning looking hung over. I’m not sure how his life has been so far, but he appears to enjoy his beverage and is in no hurry to rise.
That night the sheriff asked us to assist him in looking into something. The local clergy, Father Zantas, found some door ajar and was vexed. The sheriff told us what was up and we went with him to investigate. He stood back to judge our abilities and let us proceed. Indeed we found the door to a crypt, somewhat jammed shut and dislodged. There were marks on the outside that led Barus to believe that the culprits had climbed the wall and come over and that it was very likely during the goblin attack. We had learned earlier that two tribes of goblins had attacked the town which apparently is odd and they must have been driven by something to join and attack.
Upon finally opening the door, two zombies attacked. I have been hit before, but nothing like this. Immense strength struck me. My spell had been ineffective and I suffered the consequences. Someone healed my damage during the fight, although it was over quickly after that. I don’t remember who, it happened so quickly. I think another potion from Friedrich.
The next day the boar hunt took place. Foxglove and his men supplied us with boar spears. I asked the elf, as he already carried one, what to expect. He explained the process. Foxglove harangued us for stories of our adventures and Lucien began giving him instruction on use of the weapon he carried. I have doubts that he’s ever been on a boar hunt. If he’s hunted boars they were babies in a pen. As distracted as we were, the startled boars were on us before we knew it. One of them bit me, or hit me with his tusks and made me question the decision to accompany Foxglove. I hit the boar and did damage with the spear, and with others we finally dropped the foul beasts.
Once the combat was over we found Foxglove, frozen solid in fear. I’m quite surprised there weren’t stains in his trousers. We carried the boars back to town and gave one to the White Deer and the better to Ameiko at the Rusty Dragon.
I think this group could be interesting and apparently we have an attraction to adventure. I need to stay out of nature, it doesn’t like me, and I’m beginning to share the sentiment.

Apparently my arrival in Sandpoint is precedes an annual festival. This year’s festival features a ceremony for a new temple. I was lucky enough to get a room in a decent place called the Rusty Dragon. The town is filling up with people for the festival.
Spent some time wandering around and found a fun little bar called Cracktooth’s Tavern. Local entertainers show up here and perform. It’s a pretty good time, with wine, and entertainment to your fill. The local talent is fine, but out of town talent is showing up for the celebration and everyone enjoys the fresh blood.
The day of the festival arrived with many vendors, some games and lots of food and entertainment. Little did I know how much excitement would follow.
The day was fairly uneventful until the evening came. I had played some games and listened and laughed at the hawkers and townsfolk as they participated in the activities. One local has a real appreciation of dead goblins. His game was basically to throw goblin shaped bean bags into holes in a board with painted “fire” underneath. If you throw 3 “goblins” in the hole you got some very good jerky.
That evening found people heading to the temple for its dedication. Screams rang out through the town as goblins attacked. Initially I must say I thought it all a stage show to represent a past occurrence, but that was quickly discarded. Six goblins appeared near me, more of a reaction than any active courage, I cast and stunned a couple and started to attack. Others from the crowd jumped in to assist. I recall seeing an elf, and a couple humans jump to the attack. One of them fired what I can only assume was a gun. A loud boom and blast of fire came from a metal pipe-like thing. As the assault continued others joined in and aided in defending the town. A gnome fired a bow into combat and another human lobbed some sort of exploding potions to help defeat the attack.
A short lull occurred and the small group of apparent travelers took stock of the situation. Suddenly more calls for help and sounds of attack were heard. I was handed a potion told to drink it as he drank one and moved at an exceptional speed. I did, the fighting spirit must have taken hold. I rushed the noise of attack to find more goblins and a couple dogs. A fearful noble was off to the side pleading for help. The group, reacting much as I, had rushed to the sound of fight. Upon the sight we jumped to the attack. I must say, it didn’t go well for me and the dogs pack a nasty bite. I was bitten twice and to save myself stepped away from combat. My fellow elf and the potion laden human aided in my recovery each time and I moved back to the fight. I didn’t help much and others managed to sleigh the remaining goblins.
The noble offered us free lodging at the Rusty Dragon for “saving him”. I look forward to meeting the group.