Wragnaroq's page

Hey, bad news. Unfortunately, something came up, and I'm not going to be able to make it to the game anymore. Sorry for the late notice.

When we last left our heroes, they were just about to continue on to the next floor of the pale tower, where the way to close the winter portal awaited them.

On the other side of the first teleporter, three icy fae awaited them, and most of the party, except Shinigami, was reduced to a small size, while one of the fae grew even larger. The two smaller fae went down easily, but the battle was soon joined by a woman carrying a greatsword, who attacked the party with steel and sorcery. When the larger fae was defeated, she ran away, and the party gave chase.

When they caught up with her, they found her choking a familiar face: the noblewoman they had rescued just a few days ago. The woman released her to the party, but it was a trick. The 'noblewoman' was just a doppleganger shapeshifted into her form, and it attacked the party. The party, though it was challenging, struck down both opponents, and discovered that the woman was holding a pair of keys, one mundane and one icy. Gundar, meanwhile, took her sword.

In the next room, the party found another portal, flanked by a pair of icy statues. Unsurprisingly, the statues came to life when the party got close. They went down easily enough, thankfully, and the party kept moving. In the next hallway, they found another portal, and a room filled with potted plants and decorative ceramics. There was a pile of plants on the ground that contained an angry, ugly green baby that attacked them, but it was dealt with easily enough. With the floor cleared, the party cooped up in one of the more defensible rooms and rested for the night.

In the morning, they went through the portal to the north, using the icicle key they had found. On the other side, they found a blue-skinned woman tending to a flock of ravens. She instantly recognized that the party had hurt some of her precious birds (likely the talking raven from before), and attacked them. Since she was flying, she was out of range of melee attacks, so she was downed by missile weapons, while the flock of ravens were dealt with by burning them to death. The party claimed the woman's key, and moved on to the next portal.

On the other side, they found the objective of their quest. The portal (I admit I didn't catch the details), as well as a wizard and a goat. The wizard summoned a group of ice elementals before flying out the window to the courtyard. Gundar demolished the ice elementals, being amazingly useful for once.

Outside, the party noticed what the wizard was up to. In the courtyard was an ice sculpture of a dragon, now brought to life by the wizard. The fighters in the party imbibed some featherfall potions they had found and dropped into the courtyard.

The dragon and the wizard were struck down, but at terrible cost. Gundar was killed by the ice dragon, which was met with vast indifference from the other party members. More importantly, the portal was shut off, and the treasure vault was found. Gundar was buried, and the ice dragon's head was used as his headstone.

It's what he would have wanted.

When we last left our heroes, they were recuperating in Nadia's house after the strange incident at the inn. In the morning, they were awoken by a sound of knocking at the door. Outside was a group of guards, wearing the uniforms of the Pale Tower. Nadia told the party to hide, and answered the door. The guards had heard about Nadia taking in a group of foreigners, and wanted to take her in to ask her a few questions. Initially, Nadia refused, but the guard gave her five good reasons why she should accept, and then dragged her off.

So Gundar did something stupid. With his hood up, he crashed through the window, screaming like a maniac to get the attention of the guards and draw them away. The rest of the party followed, using more conventional methods of getting out of the building. Noticing that Nadia was still being dragged off, Gundar charged after them, and gods help whatever poor schmuck got in his way. The rest of the party mopped up the other guards, and then ran to catch up to Gundar.

Gundar finally caught up with the guard just outside the inn, and the guard called in some backup. The backup, including one particularly tough-looking fella, arrived at much the same time as the rest of the party. Through use of intimidation, the leader of the guards was terrified, and retreated into the inn. When the rest of the guards were dealt with, the party followed him in. A brief battle took place, and the leader of the guards was downed. Gundar, who had forgotten to put his armor on, was out cold.

The party decided it would be a pretty good idea to get out of town as quickly as possible. Nadia was due to make a delivery at the tower in exchange for her daughter, and she agreed to get the party inside. After getting a list of passwords for the teleporters inside the tower from Domovoi, her house spirit, they disembarked.

On the way to the tower, their paths crossed with that of a crow. Not just any crow; a talking crow, who was very keen on reclaiming some lost keys. She had a good feeling that the party possessed these keys, and demanded that they be given to her. She claimed that she would close the portal for them, but the party knew she was lying. They refused to hand over the keys, and the crow's crew decided it was a good time for a murder.

After battering down the birds, the party continued on their way, stopping to rest when they got near to the tower. The next day, donning disguises, they approached the tower. Nadia was able to get them past the icy doors, but once they were all inside, the doors were sealed behind them. The guards, and their troll friend, had no intention of returning Nadia's daughter. Likewise, the party had no intention of letting them off easily.

The guards and the troll died without incident, and the party was almost completely unscathed. Gundar took the troll's large battleaxe as a trophy, and tried using it to break down the next icy door. Meanwhile, the rest of the party went around it, reaching a courtyard filled with magical mirrors and a strange fountain. Gundar discovered that the door was actually unlocked, and walked through, passing by the fountain as he did so. A strange, watery being rose from the fountain, and a group of guards filed into the courtyard.

By the end of the fight, all the guards and the watery thing were dead, and the party discovered the first teleporter, which the tower used in lieu of something normal, like stairs. After discovering the password to activate the portal, the party stepped through, and found that on the other side, they had company.

And that's where we left off.

First of all, sorry if I seemed a bit ornery last night. I swear, next level I'm putting one skill point STRAIGHT into Linguistics.

Second, I think that it'd be in the party's best interest if Tavie got the magic snowshoes, so she can get into flanking position easier.

Now then. The writeup.

When we last left our heroes, they had just traveled through the portal to Irrisen at the request of the Black Rider. Irrisen is a land constantly cloaked in winter, so the party realized they had to get to the nearest town right away in order to resupply and get their bearings.

After a while of traveling, they came across an odd sight. A giant praying mantis, feeding on a man. The helpless man was killed before the party could do anything, and the adventurers jumped into battle!

Despite some difficulties, the insect was defeated, and the dead man's companions appeared. They were merchants, in a caravan headed home. The party claimed to be travelers from down south (not entirely false), and the caravan offered to let the party travel with them.

Since my ability to remember NPC names is about as good as my ability to remember the names of actual people, I will simply call the leader of the Caravan the Trader Woman. When the caravan made camp, the party asked her about the area, and told her that they were trying to find the icy tower. The Trader Woman reacted to the mention of the tower, and revealed that her daughter had been taken after saying something childish to a noblewoman, which Shinigami found interesting.

While sitting around the fire, there was a visitor. A blue-skinned woman with horns and goat's feet, who acted very friendly and asked to be allowed to rest at the fire with the party. The party, suspicious, agreed, but made sure to keep their hoods up. The woman - who the party recognized as being a fae - claimed to be a traveling bard, and repeatedly offered to sing to the group. While all this was happening, Gundar got increasingly annoyed that he couldn't understand a damn thing any of these people were saying. Tavie told the barbarian that the woman was flirting with him, asking about his 'weapons', which flustered him.

In the morning, the fae woman and the group parted ways, and the woman thanked the party for their hospitality, and promised to repay them one day, which is unfortunate, since there is no chance of the party ever crossing paths with her ever again.

Really.

After parting with the fae woman, the party and the traders moved on, until a murder of crows appeared on the horizon. The Trader Woman quickly told the party to hide under some tarps that she provided, but certain members of the party were lacking in subtlety and sneakiness, and were attacked by the crows, which nearly scratched their eyes out. After a good deal of flailing and screaming, the crows (were they ravens? On second thought, is there a difference?) dispersed, and the blinded party members had their sight restored by Fafnir's (I think) medical expertise.

When the party finally reached town, the Trader Woman offered them a place to sleep, which they heartily accepted. Then, the group went shopping, selling off many of the items they'd found in their adventures, and during their shopping, they were approached by an innkeeper, who had heard about how the party had dealt with the giant mantis. He offered the party dinner in his inn, which the party accepted.

That evening, the party went to the inn, which wasn't very busy. Only the innkeeper, his wife, two drunkards, and... a halfling. Upon seeing Gundar, the halfling called the barbarian over. Gundar was pleased to find someone to talk to, but his feelings changed when the halfling spun his tale (read: lie) of woe (read: utter bullshit).

Once, the halfling had been an adventurer (slightly true) who had one of his travels interrupted by a group of adventurers (who cruelly saved him from a kobold-y death), and was now out of funds. He wanted a thousand gold pieces so he could go on a voyage past the Edge of the World, and offered Gundar a hefty three percent interest in two or three years. Gundar, who was much smarter than he appeared (which is good, since he appeared to be really really dumb), declined, and informed the halfling that three percent of one thousand was thirty, not three.

Meanwhile, the innkeeper's wife was offering the rest of the party some freshly brewed tea, but there was something off about her. Suspicious, the party politely declined, and the innkeeper politely pointed a heavy crossbow at them and politely demanded that they drink the tea. Gundar, overjoyed at the prospect of finally getting to beat the crap out of something, charged at the innkeeper with his bare hands. The innkeeper's wife started screaming at the party that they were not welcome in Irrisen, and started casting spells at them. Their drunk lackey also joined the fight, and Shinigami mistook the middle of a fight for a good opportunity to talk with the halfling about the business investment he had been discussing with Gundar.

By the end of the fight, the innkeeper was unconscious and tied up, his wife had her brain splattered all over the bar, and their lackey was bleeding out. Shinigami discovered a mirror, and knowing that the Queen of Irrisen could use them to her advantage, had Gundar smash it. After stabilizing the drunk lackey, the party decided that it was in their best interest to bug out. The halfling tried to talk to Gundar about the investment again, but Gundar was in no mood for it, and tossed the halfling away like he was dirty laundry.

Back at the Trader Woman's house, the party made a plan to get out of town as quickly as possible. Shinigami told the trader woman about the doll, the vision they had seen, and how it might have been connected to her lost daughter. Tavie brought the halfling from the bar back, thinking that he might be useful, much to Gundar's annoyance. While the party made plans to get to the icy tower, the halfling was sent off with ten gold pieces to find a guide.

We'll never be seeing him again.

And if someone could remind me of the NPC names, that'd be swell.

When we last left our heroes, they had just found a strange hut set atop a tree and surrounded by icy boulders. They soon found out that they weren't alone, and they heard a little girl call out a warning to them. The little girl was hiding behind the boulders, and moving away from the party. Shinigami tried to get some answers out of her, but he had very little luck. Gundar chased after her, until he was hit with a strange mental image.

A town, much like Heldren. A noblewoman, who the girl spoke to. An icy tower, where the girl was held, and a doll. Gundar was so terrified by these images that he ran away screaming, nearly jumping off a cliff before he came to his senses. He told the rest of the group what he had seen, and Fafnir determined that they were dealing with a specter. He channeled energy, causing damage to the ghost, and he saw the same vision that Gundar had. With the ghost presumably dealt with, the party decided to investigate the hut.

Shinigami was the first inside, and he found, sitting in the middle of the hut, a doll of a crone, with a jewel in one eye and a mirror in the other. When he tried to approach it, it attacked him with a tiny knife, causing him to run away. Not because it caused unnatural fear; it was just Shinigami being Shinigami. The doll spoke much like the 'girl' from the boulder field, and Gundar entered the hut next to get some answers. When the doll tried to manipulate his mind again, he flew into a rage, and attacked. The rest of the party - at least, those who could fit into the hut - joined in, with Shinigami delivering pot shots through the window. Gundar was paralyzed by the doll's little knife, but the doll was soon beheaded.

Shinigami, suddenly not afraid, swiped the doll's eyes, and when he was unparalyzed, Gundar started smashing the doll's body against a wall until he felt better. With that done, the party left the hut and continued onwards.

Not long after that, they found a warning written in the snow in Taldan. Gundar's facade of stupidity dropped for a brief moment when he read them aloud, but nobody seemed to notice. After determining that the words were magical, the party moved around them, and carried on.

Further along, the party was attacked by an unlikely enemy. A giant weasel. The weasel was defeated, the party made camp, and then moved on. As they kept traveling east, they discovered large, humanoid footprints, headed east as well.

It didn't take long (or maybe it did) for the party to find another landmark; a cluster of igloos, where the large footprints had led them. Gundar, believing the footprints to belong to giants, ran ahead, and was nearly attacked by a pair of icy fairies. The party entered combat!

Gundar ran off, chasing after a strange creature that could turn invisible, and he and Tavie cornered it in a cave. Back at the igloos, the others were having little trouble with the fairies, but then more trouble showed up. A frost troll, the cause of the footprints, arrived, and it attacked the party. It was a challenge, but the beast was brought down.

Inside the cave, Tavie found a lockbox, filled with valuables and magic items. With the contents in tow, the party rested for a night, and then kept moving, until they finally reached their destination.

The portal was ringed with icicles, and cloaked in howling winds. When the party approached, an old man on horseback jumped out of the portal, an icicle through his chest. He collapsed, and the horse he was riding faded into black smoke.

The man was from Irrisen, where trouble was a-brewing. Baba Yaga, queen of the witches, was missing, and her daughter, who was the current queen of Irrisen, was using the opportunity to cement her rule. In Irrisen, Baba Yaga chooses a new queen every hundred years, one of her own daughters, but since she was missing, and with no new queen, the current queen was taking advantage of the situation. The old man was a follower of Baba Yaga, who had been attacked by the queen and fled. He charged the party with finding Baba Yaga, to end the unnatural winter, and gave them the Mantle of the Black Rider, to mark them as servants of the mother of witches. He told them to find the Dancing Hut, on display in Whitethrone, and use it to find Baba Yaga, using two strange keys: a lock of hair from a giant's beard, and a plague doctor's mask. The party accepted the task, and when the old man had passed away, dove through the portal to Irrisen.

And that's where we left off.

When we last left our heroes, they had just crossed the river, and found a discarded corpse on the side of the road.

(Since I wasn't here for the first bit, I'm gonna be guessing about what happened a little)

Moving on, the party soon came across a group of bandits, who were subdued without problem. The party pressed them for information, and after agreeing to let them go free, got some. The noblewoman they were searching for had been kidnapped by a man named Rokar (might be spelling that wrong), and was being held at a cabin not far from there.

The party headed there immediately, and upon trying to be stealthy, were attacked by a swarm of bandits. Shinigami put a good number of them to sleep, making it an easy battle (although Gundar wasn't very happy about it). Inside the cabin, they found a half-orc woman who claimed to have been kidnapped by Rokar, and worked as their cook. She told the party that the noblewoman was being held downstairs, but only Rokar had the key.

And then, Rokar came downstairs. He caused heavy damage to most of the party by channeling negative energy, but he was struck down all the same. Tavie was nearly killed by Rokar's frosty undead minion, but she survived. Using Rokar's keys, the party found the noblewoman in the cellar, and she told them about what had happened.

Apparently, Rokar was in league with some creature that had opened a portal, which might have been the cause of the wintery weather. She tasked the party with finding the portal and closing it, and promised to pay them handsomely for the work. The party agreed, and the noblewoman headed off to Heldren on her own. The party stayed the night in the cabin (which Ten-penny (the half-orc) had claimed as her own), and in the morning, they traveled west.

Before crossing an icy bridge over a frozen river, the party was attacked by a strange flying creature, which escaped before the party could strike back. And so, the party kept on moving.

Farther along, they found a dead hunter, and were attacked by more of the frozen undead. The hunter had apparently been hunting weasels (Gundar found that laughable), but something had taken a big bite out of him. The party kept moving.

Then they got attacked by a trio of walking trees, which nearly killed Gundar (he never got the chance to shout 'timber' after killing one) before they could be cut down to size. The party rested for the night, until Gundar was up and moving, and then continued on.

And not long after that... they found a house, perched on top of a tree.

And that was where we left off.

I might be a few minutes late. No more than fifteen. You can start without me, if I'm not there on time.

That's all well and good, but what about my hat.

Inquiring minds want to know.

There's trouble in Heldren. A caravan was attacked not far from the small farming village, and a Taldan noble lady was kidnapped by a strange wintery creature, which left behind only one survivor. Add that to the fact that it has been unnaturally cold, especially in the forest, and people were starting to get worried.

Enter, our heroes. Six adventurers, in Heldren for one reason or another. They were asked by the council to find out what was happening in the forest, and find the noble woman in the process. The party agreed, and after getting some information from the only survivor of the attack, they traveled south to find the site of the attack.

It was the middle of the summer, but in the forest, it was the dead of winter. Thick snow covered the ground, slowing movement and making things really, really cold. At the site of the attack, the party found that something magical was going on. One of the ruined, overturned carriages was held closed by a spear, and the party's rogue, Tavie, decided to open it up.

Inside the carriage were two undead, clearly members of the caravan, and they attacked without mercy. From the south, two more of the creatures approached, and the fight began. The party - the cleric Fafnir, the sorcerer Shinigami, the rogue Tavie, the fighter (forgot the name), the druid (also forgot the name), and the barbarian Gundar - defeated the undead without any trouble. Inside the formerly locked carriage, the party found a number of shiny things, and in the middle of the remains of the carnage, they found an icy statue, which they discovered was actually a frozen corpse.

With that done, they headed west into the forest, where the survivor had seen the monsters taking the noble woman. After a little while, the party found a chest buried in the snow. Tavie could tell there was a trap, but she was unable to disarm it, so Gundar took matters into his own hands. He triggered the trap and got hit in the side by a sharpened log, which didn't bother him all that much. Inside, the party found arms and armor, of an unknown make.

The party kept moving, and after being attacked by a frost drake in a snowdrift ("I killed a dragon!" "Gundar, that's not a dragon. Dragons have wings." "Maybe it lost them. I lose things all the time."), they found a macabre Christmas tree. It was decorated with frozen raven corpses, and in moments, the party was attacked by a group of fey, armed with strange magic and miniature shortbows.

The magical creatures were dealt with easily, and the party kept moving, until they were met with a most unexpected creature. A talking elk.

The elk seemed friendly enough, though one of the party (can't remember who) suspected that the elk wasn't the one actually talking. The elk offered to help the party find the noble woman, and the party convened to discuss the possibility. After a quick chat, they returned to the elk, who ran away, acting like a normal elk.

Slightly confused, the party made camp for the night.

In the morning, they kept on moving, until they came across a frozen river, and in the middle of the path there was a snowman. Gundar admired the craftsmanship, but the rest of the party paid more attention to the sign in front of it reading 'trespassers be warned' or something to that effect. Gundar threw a snowball at it, and it yelled at him for not reading the sign, not knowing that Gundar couldn't read. Another snowball produced the same reaction, word for word, and Gundar decided that he liked the snowman's hat.

When he stepped forwards to claim his prize, the snowman yelled at him so loudly it was painful, and a creature made of ice burst out of the frozen river. Gundar took a moment to put his new hat on, and the battle began!

The battle, for the most part, went easily enough, except for a raging Gundar's over-enthusiasm nearly getting him killed. In an attempt to get to one of the ice creatures, he stepped on the ice, breaking through it and nearly dying in the process. Fafnir was able to save him, but he couldn't save Gundar's hat, which was left at the bottom of the river.

With that taken care of, the party crossed the river and found an unidentified corpse, but that was where we called it for the night.

...Waaaaaaaiit a minute. There's no way Gundar's hat would have sunk to the bottom of the river. I mean, come on, it's practically an air pocket wrapped in black silk. I want my hat back, dang it! I actually own a top hat (belonged to my great-grandfather, true story) and I want an excuse to wear it!

I'm not much good at describing physical characteristics. Gundar isn't an Ulfen, but he's built like one, and people always said that one of his ancestors might have been a giant. Gundar took those half-joking suggestions to heart, and so he picked up his axe and decided to travel north to find out.

Gundar is a bit gruff, fond of violence, and not exactly sharp.

I've got a cleric of Sarenrae I can use, domains Healing and Fire. But, if we've already got a cleric, I'll reconsider. Might make a Ranger. Sorry I didn't post earlier, I was on vacation and didn't have very good internet access.

When we last left our heroes, they had just been teleported into a strange cell, and been laughed at by a mummified woman.

Calathes noticed that, at the top of the room, there were a number of holes, which he realized were part of a trap. With no way to open the bars from the inside, he got a crazy idea. He squeezed his way into the party's bag of holding, and had Darius and Brogan put him outside the bars. Then, he climbed out, and got attacked by the mummy woman.

Calathes got away from her, and ran to a panel with glowing runes in the middle of the room. He started pressing buttons, which unlocked a few of the cells. Some of them contained nothing, others held mutated, hound-like undead, and one of them... had Axfow, who had somehow been captured and brought there.

The released undead hounds and mummy woman swarmed Calathes, knocking him out and putting him near death. Darius used the same trick as Calathes to get out of the cell, and made it to the panel, releasing Brogan and Axfow before being knocked out himself. Brogan and Axfow cleaned up the rest of the enemies, even though Brogan was knocked out as well. The group was brought back up, even though some of them had been cursed by the mummy, and were difficult to heal. They started looking for a way out, and soon found a staircase headed upwards. After passing by a number of eyes in the floor, the Falcons made their way up the tower, and found an observatory.

They were in a large mansion, and on the roof below the tower, there was a glass dome with a ray of light beaming into the center. In the observatory tower, however, there was a large telescope.

Calathes made the terrible decision of looking into it, and he saw, in his mind, the dreaded Cthulhu Expy. He reeled back, and Darius started to attack the telescope, which for some reason started bleeding.

The Falcons decided that they needed to get down to the roof, and so they broke a window and climbed down the side of the tower using a rope. At the bottom, they peeked into the glass dome, and broke in, dropping down into the room below.

The ray of light from beyond the stars was directed into a strange orb, which directed it down even further. The Falcons found their way down, and saw that the light was going through a pair of double doors. They charged into the room, and what they saw astounded them.

In the center of the large room was a massive, alien creature, held in captivity by four statues all around it. A pair of clearly magical beings were in the room, and as soon as they noticed the Falcons, they called in their master, the floating man. The mysterious, malevolent being prepared to cast the greatest magic of all: the magic of fitting an entire villainous monologue into six seconds.

And so, the Falcons entered combat. The servants went down easily enough, but their master was another story. As he fought, he broke the orbs held by each of the four statues one by one.

Calathes was killed in the battle, his head torn off by the floating man, and the final orb was destroyed. The monster was stirring. The floating man was struck down, and the Falcons ran for their lives, taking Calathes's head with them for sentimental reasons. They were able to get out of the mansion before the beast awoke, and they escaped back to Falcon's Hollow, victorious.

Well, victorious-ish. They hadn't been able to stop the Whispering Way from waking the monster, and Calathes was dead, so... I'd say they made out even.

Gonna be late. No idea what it is with Wednesdays and late dinners. Sorry. Hopefully won't be too late.

When we last left our heroes, they had foiled the undead attack on Falcon's Hollow, and were preparing to head back to Droskar's Crucible to investigate the vault door deep inside.

Thankfully, Brogan was able to realize that he was infected with lycanthropy, and had the horrible curse removed. And so, three of the Falcons - Darius, Brogan, and Calathes - headed off to the Crucible.

On the way there, they came across a tribe of river barbarians, which for some reason included an ogre. The barbarians fought like monsters, and hit like avalanches, but the Falcons were able to defeat them and the ogre. From the symbols on their bodies, it was assumed that they worshiped one of the gods of the Dark Tapestry, beings from beyond the stars.

Exploring the barbarian camp, the Falcons found a crippled, eyeless woman in front of the fire, in the middle of a trance. Calathes tried to shake her out of it, and she whispered something in his ear. She told him that the 'Dark Young' were coming, and that 'when you observe the stars, sometimes the stars observe back'.

She also asked him to have sex with her, to hasten the arrival of the Dary Young. Calathes declined, slightly insulted that she thought he could father an abomination.

Assured that this woman was a crazy cultist, Darius stuffed her in a sack. I'm not kidding. He actually shoved her in a big bag. They headed back to town with the crazy lady in tow. Calathes grumbled the entire way there about how he was of fine stock, even if he didn't know who his father was.

Back in Falcon's Hollow, the Falcons found Lady Serthana at the Sitting Duck tavern, where she was staying while the church was rebuilt. They dropped off the cultist with her, with instructions not to let her have sex with anyone. With that, they returned to the adventure, but not before Calathes could ask Lady Serthana if he looked abomination-y. She said no, and with his ego reassured, Calathes left.

When the Falcons returned to the Crucible, they found that the vault door was open, and behind it was a hole in the ground, leading down at least a hundred feet. Using two lengths of rope tied together, the Falcons descended into the pit, which was faintly illuminated by glowing crystals, and decorated by giant, glassy orbs containing sacrificed corpses. There was a large stone door between two pillars, and to the surprise of the Falcons, they opened.

Out walked an undead, hideous creature, not so much human as it was a pile of flesh. It attacked the Falcons, but it proved to be very susceptible to edged weapons, which the Falcons had no shortage of.

Then, something happened. The rope the Falcons had used to get down there fell, as if it had been cut from up above. And the large orbs cracked, releasing a constant stream of water. After the flesh creature was cut down to size, the Falcons escaped from the cavern, retreating through the large stone doors and closing them, using some clothing to stop the water, which showed no signs of stopping.

With their way back blocked, the Falcons had no choice but to move forwards. Inside the door was what seemed to be a tomb. A channel moved from north to south, filled with a red liquid that wasn't blood, and to the east, there was a large pool of the same liquid, and a lot of sarcophagi. The Falcons started looking around, and it didn't take long for something to attack them.

A group of shadowy figures (literally made of shadows) rose up out of the ground to attack, and another ghostly figure threw rocks at the party, fading in and out of existence as it did so. The shadows went down easily, but the ghost was harder to destroy, since it kept on fading in and out. Eventually, it was defeated, but the Falcons had a new problem. The clothing under the door hadn't been able to stop the water, and it was slowly beginning to rise.

Panicked, the Falcons started to search for another exit. They soon found one. In another chamber, at the end of the channel of red water, was a skull with an obviously magical staff in it. The Falcons waded through the water to get to it, as the doors were thrown open from the sheer volume of water behind it. Thankfully, Calathes was able to somehow discover the command word, and activated the staff.

The Falcons found themselves inside a cramped, stony room. They quickly found a secret sliding door, and on the other side, a cell with a magical symbol on the floor. The Falcons were unable to escape, and soon, they found that they had a visitor. A strange woman, who looked at them and laughed.

And that's where we stopped.

Might be a few minutes late. Again. Sorry.

I'll consider the investment after I find out how much gold we make from selling the stuff we found.

Also, something we completely forgot about last night? We still have a wand of cure light wounds.

...Uh, Calathes just leveled up. Again.

WRITEUP TIME

When we last left the Falcons, they had just avoided the clutches of a dangerous elephant-thing, and Calathes had spotted something off in the distance...

A floating orb of what looked like fungus, floating away from the group down a tunnel. Not wanting to get messy again, the Falcons decided to let it go.

Not long after that, the Falcons heard the sound of rattling bars, and went to investigate. They found, locked up in prison cells, some undead, struggling to break free. And then, a group of skeletons, and the floating eye from earlier, attacked!

The skeletons and the eye were dealt with easily enough (Brogan punched a skeleton so hard it fell apart. It was awesome). In that area, they found a trapped chest, and after disarming it, they found a few interesting items. Namely, a ring of keys, a quiver of magic arrows, and a bag of holding filled with gold coins.

The Falcons moved on to the next room, and found even more cells filled with undead. Darius spent some time putting them out of their misery, and a hidden door was discovered, leading to a sewer grate in the south side of Falcon's Hollow.

The Falcons continued on through the stinking sewers, and they soon found a large, trapped door. After the the rune was disarmed and the lock picked, the Falcons entered the room, and found cadavers hanging from the ceiling on meathooks. Not long after that, they were attacked by a robed man and two strange undead. After all the enemies were defeated, Darius piled the corpses up in another room and burned them. The Falcons, again, found some treasure.

With that done, the Falcons kept moving. After passing a strange, moldy growth (Calathes tried to jump over it, but was knocked out by the spores in mid-air), they found another passage, and through that, a group of wererats, likely the ones responsible for robbing the Humble Homunculus. Not wanting to mess with them, the Falcons let them be.

Then, past that, they found the object of their search. Jeva, the girl they had saved so long ago. An ungrateful bee-yotch, in both senses of the word. The werewolf girl was inside a room with a strange, empty pit. Axfow, being old and easily confused, and Calathes, being young and easily fooled, were both enchanted by the pit, and saw what they most desired inside it, and jumped in, leaving Brogan and Darius to fight the werewolf themselves. During the fight, both men were bitten, but Jeva was defeated, shifting back to her human form in death. And, unbeknownst to him, Brogan was infected with the curse of lycanthropy.

The Falcons kept moving, and soon came across an odd sight. A trio of drunkards, sitting in the cellar of a tavern, getting smashed. And one of them - a halfling - was very familiar to the Falcons. Edgrin, the man they had saved in Droskar's Crucible. It turned out that Edgrin's expedition had failed, as he had lost his money while stuck in the Crucible, and had been driven to drink. He begged Calathes for a job (five gold a week? What, do I look like I'm made out of money?), trying to guilt him into it, since the halfling blamed the Falcons for what had happened to him (Yeah, we saved his life. So sorry about that). Calathes ignored him, simply saying that Edgrin should come by the shop later, and the Falcons returned to town, smelling like shit, but triumphant.

Also, I thought of the names for the workers in the Humble Homunculus. Lack Ey, Min Yun, Wirr Kur, Subor Dinate, and Bobby Fourfingers.

Oh, fine. Here we go.

When we last left our heroes, they were headed back to Falcon's Hollow after investigating the Azlanti ruins. Upon arriving at town, they found that it was under attack by an army of undead. They quickly went to work and took down a large undead ram, saving one of Calathes's workers in the process. The worker, known as Lack Ey, told Calathes that the shop had been robbed by a wererat. Since they had bigger troubles, the Falcons put that on the back burner and kept moving.

They headed south into the town square, where Lady something-with-an-S was healing people hurt in the attack. After fighting a few zombies in the square, the Falcons saw a werewolf attack one of the guards and then escape into the sewers, yelling at the Falcons that she should have killed them when she had the chance.

When all the zombies were rekilled, the priestess told the Falcons that the undead had started to rise the night before, and that they were apparently based in the sewers beneath town. The Falcons decided that that was where they were headed, and with the priestess in tow, they disembarked.

They only got about fifty feet into the sewers before they were attacked by a blob of living blood. The creature drained blood from the Falcons to make more of itself, but it and its spawn were defeated handily, although the Falcons were covered in excrement in the process.

Then, not even fifty feet past that, the Falcons noticed a chamber with a large rune floating on the filthy water. Something in the room spoke to them, asking them to come inside just to have a chat. The Falcons didn't buy it, and ran away. The source of the voice showed itself to be some big, ugly elephant thing, and it wiped the memory of Axfow and Brogan as they ran. It took some convincing, but Calathes was able to get them to follow him, and the elephant-thing seemed to be incapable of giving chase.

And then, fifty freaking feet past that, another thing showed its ugly face.

I'm beginning to notice a pattern.

Write-up might be a little bit late. Because holy CRAP The Last Of Us.

I might be a little bit late tonight. Hopefully not TOO late, though. Feel free to start without me.

When we last left our heroes, they had just killed a number of large insects at the lumber camp, and had just discovered one more of an enormous size.

After the giant tar beetle (I'm pretty sure) burst its way out of the building, Calathes tried to climb a large stack of lumber to get the drop on it. Unfortunately, the monstrous beetle's body was magical, and the sight of it dazed Calathes. The giant beetle climbed up the lumber after Calathes, and nearly killed the rogue, leaving a large scar on his chest. Which somehow didn't break the armor. Hey, he said I could choose where the scar was.

With Calathes out of the action, and Axfow staring off into the distance, it was up to Darius and Brogan to defeat the bug. Brogan got the beetle to run away, and soon landed the last attack. With the beetle dead, and Calathes brought back to the living, the three began to search the camp. Axfow stopped staring off into the distance, and started to search as well. One of the buildings was either unstable or trapped, and if the door had been opened, it would have collapsed. Another building was trapped with crossbows, which Calathes was able to disarm. Inside, they found the body of the lumber camp's foreman, and the payroll of all the lumberjacks, which had been defaced with blood.

Also in the building, they found a chest containing a magical longbow (which was given to Brogan), six mysterious vials, and a large number of silver and copper pieces. Another item found in the ruins of the camp was a strange crown made out of small swords.

In one of the larger buildings, the Falcons found that the camp wasn't totally abandoned. Three snakes, obviously magical, attacked them. They were quickly defeated, and the Falcons discovered that there was a survivor of the attack. A lumberjack who had hidden while the attack was going on. This lumberjack told the Falcons about what had happened, about a man with no legs and a group of kobolds attacking the camp. He described that the leader of the kobolds had killed some of the lumberjacks (and some of the other kobolds) and become more powerful from it. Familiar?

After the lumberjack told the Falcons about what he had overheard the floating man and the kobold say (they were going to a burial ground to the northeast, and felt the need to narrate it), he went back to town. The Falcons gave him one of the crossbows from the trap earlier to defend himself with, and only realized that they hadn't given him any bolts after he had left. Oops.

Their destination in mind, the Falcons headed northeast, and soon came arrived at some Azlanti ruins. However, before they could enter the burial mound, they were attacked by a pair of gravehounds and something called a 'nothic'. Hell if I know.

The strange creatures were defeated, and the Falcons moved into the burial mound. Calathes noticed no trap in the first hallway, and swore he could see a ghostly face in a stagnant pool of water in the next room. Nobody believed him. Axfow and Darius followed him in, but Brogan hesitated, as he had noticed something the rogue had not: a trap. Ashamed, Calathes disarmed the trap. I can't remember how, but the Falcons quickly figured out that they (except for Brogan) had been hit by an Azlanti curse, and would die within three days. The cursed Falcons couldn't leave the burial mound, so Brogan decided to head back to town to find some way to lift the curse. However, before he could get very far, the Falcons noticed a creature in the tomb with them. A naga, and with it, a ghost.

The battle was challenging, but the Falcons emerged victorious. Searching through the tomb, they found a magical sealstone, which filled the mind of the holder with knowledge, and lifted the curse placed on three of the Falcons.

And so, no longer cursed to have their teeth and eyes fall out, the Falcons left, aiming to return to Falcon's Hollow.

When we last left our heroes, they had just returned to Falcon's Hollow. Calathes had purchased a small store, selling general goods and locks.

Two weeks later, three of the Falcons (Saria, Phineas, and Calathes) were summoned to the cathedral by Lady Whatsherface. Brogan and Axfow were nowhere to be found. At the cathedral, they were introduced to a man named Mutters and an inquisitor named Darius. The priestess told the assembled Falcons that she had received a letter addressed to the Falcons, and the wax seal bore the mark of a skull.

Saria opened the letter, and found that it was a basic, if vague, threat from the Whispering Way. Then, the letter turned into a dragon. I'm not kidding.

With the help of the inquisitor, the Falcons cut the paper dragon to ribbons, but they weren't out of the woods yet. Apparently, the Whispering Way had sent more than one assassin in case the dragon didn't work. There was a massive explosion, and the cathedral was set on fire.

After finding the corpses of some of the cathedral's acolytes, the Falcons minus two plus one got out of the cathedral, and were attacked by a group of thugs. The thugs weren't that tough, but then, another assassin appeared. An archer up on a roof, who detonated a barrel next to the cathedral. The priestess and Mutters were caught in the explosion, but Calathes was able to get them out.

Meanwhile, the other Falcons and the inquisitor got up onto the roofs to fight the archers on equal footing. One of the thugs who had been put to sleep by Saria woke up and, after trying to attack Calathes, ran away. Calathes gave chase, and tackled the thug to the ground before tying him up.

Not long after the last archer was killed, Axfow finally showed up as a part of the volunteer fire brigade. He was quickly filled in on what had happened, and Darius started to interrogate the prisoner. He scared the pants off of the thug, who started singing like a canary. They had been hired to take out the Falcons, since the group had gotten too involved in the Whispering Way's plans. He also mentioned something about an attack at the lumber camp, which had apparently dropped off the map not long ago. After handing the prisoner off to the guard, the Falcons, minus Brogan, plus Darius, decided to head off to the lumber camp to get some answers.

On the way there, the Falcons were attacked by a very unlikely foe. A pair of undead velociraptors. Again, I'm not kidding. It was difficult, as the skeletal lizards were hard to damage, but they were eventually sent back to the grave. Not far away from that, they found an abandoned camp, which may or may not have had lumberjack corpses, I can't remember.

Seriously, those guys have a higher mortality rate than redshirts.

Finally, the Falcons arrived at the lumber camp, and they found that they were too late. The camp had already been attacked, and the Falcons were soon beset upon by a swarm of burrowing beetles. The insects were very weak, and easily killed, but then...

An even bigger one showed up. It exploded its way right out of a building.

And that's where we left off.

When we last left our heroes, they had settled down for the night to recuperate after Phineas was attacked by a dangerous monster.

Once their wounds were healed, the Falcons took the elevator down to the next level. Inside what seemed to be a storeroom, they found two odd undead: the corpse of a dwarf, and what seemed to have been one of the children they were searching for, before the child's head was cut off and replaced with a fox's skull. It was challenging, but the Falcons defeated the two undead, although the fox-skull child's touch fatigued them. After resting to regain their strength, the Falcons moved on.

Further along, inside a large cavern, the Falcons were attacked by another strange creature. It seemed to be a dragon, without any wings to speak of (I don't think we found out what it was, actually). Regardless, after a much less challenging fight, the creature was defeated, and the Falcons continued to explore the tunnels.

Not long after sneaking past a group of strange toads with tusks, the Falcons came across an odd sight: a hatchery, with half a dozen baby kobolds frolicking around. The Falcons crept past, not wanting to get the children's attentions. Just a little bit past that, they found another cavern, this one filled with the remains of kobolds, their throats cut by an unknown enemy. Not knowing what to make of that, the Falcons moved on.

Finally, they found the leader of the kobolds, a particularly nasty specimen wearing a strange crown. This kobold and his underlings had two of the children tied up, and one of them was on an altar. Upon noticing the Falcons, the kobold king killed the child on the altar, cutting his head off and absorbing a strange, dark energy that came out of the corpse. The Falcons fought the kobolds, killing all of them but the king, and protected the child that had not been killed. Weakened, the king ran away, and the Falcons, sans Calathes, charged off after him.

After catching up with the kobold king, they found that he had run into another room with a shrine and a child, and the child was killed before their eyes, letting out the same dark energy. The king seemed to be revitalized by the energy, and the battle began once again. And soon, the kobold king was dead.

Two of the five children had survived.

On the way out of the dungeon, the Falcons passed by the rooms with the fanged toads and the kobold children, and what they saw shocked them. The toads and the children were all dead, their throats cut out. The Falcons had seen human footprints earlier, which they could not explain, and it seemed that whatever had made those footprints had killed the toads and children. After dropping the living child off with the halfling, they followed the tracks to find the killer.

At the end of a long tunnel, hidden behind a barrier of rubble, the Falcons found a massive vault door, with a crude skull carved into the metal. When the Falcons got too close, they were attacked by a pair of shadowy creatures, who could drain their strength with just a touch. Using arrows with ghost-salt and vials of holy water, the shadowy creatures were defeated, and the Falcons discovered that they could not open the vault.

Their work done, at least to the best of their ability, the Falcons returned to town.

When we last left our heroes, they had just hunkered down for the night in Droskar's Crucible.

In the morning, with their wounds all healed, the Falcons left the abandoned bedroom and continued on through the dungeon. In the western reaches, they discovered what seemed to be a communal bedroom (always good for the growing dwarf fortress, keeps down on space but lets the little alcoholics get some shuteye). The room was already occupied by a swarm of strange insects, which Saria recognized as 'sturges'.

After the odd insects were taken care of, the Falcons searched the room. Inside, they found a few potions, which were divvied up as needed. After leaving the room through the northern door, they came across an odd sight. An armored, floating dwarf.

The dwarf wasn't actually floating, however, but suspended in a gelatinous cube, which charged the party. Not having much of a way to fight it, the Falcons retreated, chipping away at the jello as they went. Finally, the cube was killed, and the dwarven corpse was reclaimed.

It appeared to be the former dwarven hero the Falcons had heard of, who had met an ignominious end at the hands of the evil dessert. After resolving to bury his body later, the Falcons stripped him naked and gave his armor to... Phineas? I think it was Phineas. Was it Phineas?

Further along in the dungeon, the Falcons came across an odd sight: a group of kobolds, under the command of a wizard (was there a wizard? My memory is so terrible). There was a halfling tied up in the corner, at the mercy of the small lizardpeople. After defeating all the kobolds and their overseer (if there was one), the Falcons freed the halfling and listened to his story.

The halfling had been on his way to the mountains in the north, and had stopped off to rest for the night in the monastery. When he woke up, he had been captured by the kobolds and dragged off to parts unknown. He thanked the Falcons for rescuing him, and promised to follow them as they searched for the lost children.

Not long after that, the Falcons finally found the child they were looking for. In the natural tunnels in the northeast of the dungeon, they found what seemed to be a forge, watched over by a strange dwarf in grisly armor. The child was bound to an anvil, and his head was about to be bashed in by the monstrous dwarf. Thankfully, the arrival of the Falcons changed the dwarf's priorities.

After a challenging fight, the dwarf was dead, and the child was roused from his sleep.

In hindsight, we really should have let the dwarf kill the little shit.

The child was self-absorbed to a frightening degree, and instantly began to whine at the Falcons to take him home, since he didn't care about the other children. After bribing the little snot with some cake, the Falcons got a few more answers out of him (turns out the werewolf orphan girl is his girlfriend. Poor thing).

Saria put the little brat to sleep, and the halfling promised to watch over the little shit until the Falcons returned with the other children. Meanwhile the Falcons moved on, sending... Brogan? I really need to start writing this stuff down. Anyway, Brogan went down the crevasse in the corner of the forge, and was very quickly attacked by a very dangerous monster. After very nearly dying, he was pulled back up, and the Falcons agreed to never try that again.

The Falcons leveled up to three. Ding.

Time ta get crackin'.

5/22 Session Writeup, alias I Can't Think of a Clever Title

When we last left our heroes, they had just entered the depths of Droskar's Crucible. The kobolds had been dispatched, and wounds, for the most part, healed. The Falcons moved deeper into the dungeon, and soon found a large pool of lava, apparently watched over by a snake-like creature called a grick. The strange creature was defeated, and the party kept moving.

In the next hallway, they were beset by a group of rats of the boring, not-psychic variety. The heroic Falcons defeated them, and then, heroically, looted the body the rats had been eating.

Calathes took his boots.

The next room was circular, with a strange obelisk in the center. Calathes got lazy, and didn't notice the floor was electrified until he was already being fried. Once the room was open, a pair of vargouilles, flying, bat-winged heads, attacked. They were dealt with easily, and Calathes disabled the trap.

Okay, my memory is a bit spotty. I can't remember if that was before or after they found the bedroom with the dead dwarf and his construct that Calathes put in a bag for some reason. But that happened, too. There was a weird magic evil gauntlet in there as well.

Further along, the Falcons were attacked by an incorporeal shadow creature, one that drained wisdom with every attack. Axfow was almost entirely drained, but the strange being was destroyed before it could finish the job. Knowing that there was no time to lose waiting for him to recover, the Falcons had to keep moving.

After nearly triggering an odd trap that seemed to be more trouble than it was worth, the Falcons doubled back, and went through a door they had passed by earlier. On the other side, they were attacked by a group of ghoulish, undead dwarves that had been eating a kobold. The Falcons and the ghouls clashed, and Saria was very nearly killed before all the creatures could be wiped out. Once the battle was done, the Falcons decided that it would probably be a good idea to take a rest. They barricaded themselves inside the dead dwarf's room, and were mercifully not attacked as they rested.

And that's where we left off.

Random question here. Inside the Crucible, are we, at any point, going to find a homicidal broken AI who for some inexplicable reason takes the form of a creepy little kid we saw get killed by a Reaper?

Let it be known that I should get an xp bonus for typing through the tears, and also that I am no just over-exaggerating to get said xp bonus. I mean OH GOD I CAN'T FEEL MY THUMBS

Anyhoo.

It has been one month since the plague was cured, and trouble has reared its ugly-ass mug. A group of stupid children had gone missing, after taking a dare to spend a night at the ruins of an evil orphanage. They had been gone for about a week, and their parents were getting worried. So worried, they would pay 1000 gold for the safe return of their children.

And so, the Five Falcons took the case.

It took them about half a day to get to the Halfway House, which had been suspiciously built far outside of town. It had burned down years ago, and just about every orphan there had died. Of course, they were orphans, so nobody cared.

Searching through the rubble, Calathes soon discovered a trap door, burned shut by the blaze that had claimed the building. Upon opening it, the group discovered what seemed to be a torture chamber, with the corpse of a robed woman rotting inside. Also in the room were a pair of masterwork silver daggers, and a bunch of rotting herbs.

Meanwhile, Axfow found a tent that had apparently been used by the children they were searching for, and inside was a girl. She was asleep, and her hands and face were covered in blood. Before he could wake her up, however, the party came under attack by a group of strange rats with mind powers.

The rats kept their distance as they mentally assaulted the group, but they were dealt with quickly. After they were all dead, the girl woke up, and began to panic a lil' bit.

The girl told the Falcons about how she had been with the group of children, who were kidnapped by kobolds. She had overheard them speaking in Draconic, and was able to repeat a few of the words that were said, which translated to 'we're taking these kids to Droskar's Crucible'. The girl went on to say that she was an orphan, who had grown up at the Halfway House. When she was asked about how she had avoided capture, she dodged the question.

Then, she was asked if she knew about the hidden room beneath the orphanage, and she cracked like a calcium-deficient egg. It turned out that she had killed the woman who founded the orphanage after she was brought down there, and the fire started not long after. Judging by the contents of the room, the Falcons decided that the woman probably deserved it, and sent the girl on her way, giving her a gold coin to buy room and board at an inn in town.

And then, things started to add up. A pair of silver daggers. Bunches of herbs, which turned out to be wolf's bane. A girl with blood on her hands and face.

The girl was a freaking werewolf.

With no way to catch up to the girl, who was too far gone at that point, the Falcons decided to move on to Droskar's Crucible, back at the Monastery. Along the way, they were attacked by the plant life, which tried to eat Varia's brains out through her ears. The malicious plant and its zombie henchman were disposed of easily, however, and the Falcons kept moving.

They got maybe twenty feet before they found another oddity. A table under a tree, with three lumberjacks sleeping face-down in what looked like cake. The trees started whispering for the Falcons to eat some of the cake, and after interrogating the voice, the Falcons found that the source was a fae who lived in the tree.

Varia, who had a bleeding heart, made the fae a sign that said 'please don't chop down my tree'. With that out of the way, the Falcons finally returned to the Monastery.

They found the ruins in the same condition as it had been when they left it a month earlier. Broken, dirty, and smelling like dwarf. At the collapsed stairway that had stopped them earlier, the Falcons discovered a hole large enough to squeeze through. They decided to have Calathes go on ahead, and the half-elf accidentally triggered a trap, which unblocked the stairway and deposited him at the feet of a group of kobolds.

The kobolds went down fairly easily, and with the exception of Phineas nearly dying, everything went well.

And that's really all there is to say on the matter.

The Falcons used a Hero Point to keep Phineas from dying. Calathes should get an xp bonus for writing this while in pain.

The writeup may take me a while. I took a tumble this morning and scuffed up my hands. Typing's tough.

Agreed.

Also, are ioun torches available for purchasin'?

I'm neutral good. And yes, I'm pretty sure that infernal healing is an evil spell. I can tell because it has the word infernal in it.

For a second, I thought you were talking to me. Never mind. Let's get this show on the proverbial road.

Darkmoon Vale: Rumble in the Rubble

(Or: Session Writeup 2: Electric Boogaloo)

When we last left our heroes, they had finally reached the abandoned dwarven monastery where they would find the mushrooms needed to cure the plague. Before using the front door, our heroes (who STILL need a group name, dang it) decided to scout around the building. They discovered the rotting corpse of a long-dead dwarf, dressed in a snazzy cloak. Our heroes claimed the cloak for their own, and soon afterwards, discovered what had killed the dwarf.

Sadly, the plant lady from town (there has got to be a better way to say that) had neglected to mention that some of the plants in the monastery were apparently made of hate and asparagus. Because that's what our heroes were attacked by. Giant, malevolent asparagus. That exploded upon death.

When the unlikely enemies were slain, the heroes (GROUP. NAME. NEEDED.) continued into the monastery, where they were soon attacked by a pair of whatchamacallems and their pet spider. The strange dog-like creatures gave off a powerful aura of bad luck, meaning the battle with them stretched out a bit, but through Saria's judicious use of wyychy magycs, they were sent to dreamland and then wherever fey go when they die.

With that done, our heroes moved into the monastery.

In the first room they checked, they discovered that the monastery was dedicated to Torag, the chief deity of the dwarves. They also discovered flying octopi things that lived in the ceiling, so that was fun. The odd creatures were also dispatched (one of them so thoroughly that it became abstract art), and the heroes kept looking for the mushrooms.

In the old library of the monastery, a dwarven book was discovered, which Brogan translated as being a book of prayers to Torag. In the back of the book, he discovered arcane writings, but since he lacked the training to decipher it (I think?), he decided to come back to it later.

In a blocked off room just off the main hallway, Calathes discovered the corpse of one of the dwarven monks, who had apparently poisoned himself, judging by the broken vial at his side. The dwarf also had a silver hammer, marked with a religious symbol, and a note written in dwarven. Brogan earned his keep by identifying the hammer and translating the note.

The symbol on the hammer was the symbol of Droskar, a minor deity among the dwarves. The legend says that Droskar was once a student of Torag, but was cast out when it was discovered that he had stolen the original ideas of others. Torag cursed him to never create an original design again.

The note revealed that the dead dwarf was a follower of Droskar, and that there had apparently been a bit of a disagreement between the monks in the monastery, which explained the building's current state.

Our heroes kept moving. Further along, they came across an iron door, with a lock of such craftdwarfship that Calathes couldn't hope to unlock it without the key. Deterred, they moved on to the next room, an armory long ago emptied of any goodies. An in-depth search revealed a hidden room, which had apparently been a prison once upon a time; in fact, the previous inmates had not yet been vacated.

Also, they weren't one hundred percent 'dead'.

Calathes, who had gotten too close to one of the skeletons, baited by the mushroom in its rib cage, was quickly knocked out. Thankfully, the other heroes were more effective in battle than he was, and the skeletons were destroyed.

With the cells vacated, and the spellcasters in the group exhausted, the heroes decided to rest there. In the middle of a haunted freaking monastery. Where they had already fought a few fey.

Brilliant.

The next day, the heroes, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, continued their search. They first returned to the door that Calathes hadn't been able to open, and it was discovered that they weren't alone in the monastery anymore.

There was a wolf in the monastery. A few of our heroes charged forth, and fought the wolf and a kobold that showed itself. Calathes and Axfow, being as slow on the uptake as a barrel of old tar (Calathes) and as old as the tar (Axfow), were left behind.

Then another, even bigger wolf burst through the door.

That was fun.

The wolves and kobold were defeated, and the locked room was open to the heroes. Inside, they found what seemed to be an office, and in the room after that, there were more than enough mushrooms for the cure, and a staircase headed down that had collapsed only recently. And faintly audible through the mounds of rock was the distinctive sound of pickaxes striking stone.

Saria made the case to stay and try to find a way to help whoever might be trapped beneath the stone, but there was no time. Falcon's Hollow needed the cure as soon as possible, and they had wasted enough time already. Our heroes returned to town without incident, and the cure was created and distributed. The town was saved.

END WRITE UP. READ THIS NEXT PART FOR SOME THINGS THAT I THINK WE NEED TO TALK 'BOUT.

The group was elevated to level two, and the spoils of war were divided up.

Now, in all seriousness, we do need an awesome group name. I vote for the Five Falcons, after the first enemies we fought as a group.

Also, since one month is going to have passed in-game before the next session, should we discuss what our characters get up to in that time?

Hope it's not too bad. Get better soon.

When we last left our heroes... we didn't. Because this was the first session, numbnuts.

Our heroes (who need an adventuring group name, bee tee dubs) arrived in Falcon's Hollow to find the town held firmly in the clutches of the plague. Not wanting to waste time, they found their way to the local church, and their contact for the job, whose name I have already forgotten. This priestess told them more about the plague, and that they should go to the apothecary and speak to the woman in charge there.

The woman (whose name I have also forgotten) told them that the plague had come from the river, and she suspected foul play. She told our heroes that to try and cure the plague, she would need some ingredients. Moss from the oldest tree in the forest, a root called rat's tail, and a number of iron bloom mushrooms. All of these could be found in Darkmoon Wood, but getting them would not be easy. Not wanting to waste time, the group set off.

On their way to a nearby lumberjack camp, hoping to find directions, our heroes came across an odd sight: an undead kobold, covered in draconic writing. The poor creature was put to rest, and the party was attacked! By birds!

I'm serious!

Fortunately, this foul flock of flying falcons and their frightful falconeer were foiled by our fighting fixeruppers. (Alliteration, b#++&es.)

Our heroes moved on. After a day of traveling, they arrived at the lumberjack camp. After greasing a palm (completely unnecessarily), they found the foreman, and after greasing his palm, they were given a more detailed map of the forest. The foreman also asked them to please cure his nephew in town of the plague, without telling them who his nephew was. Idiot.

The oldest tree in the forest was closest, so our heroes set off there first. They ran into no problems along the way, except for finding a set of tracks belonging to a satyr, and arrived at the massive darkwood tree the next day.

A grisly sight awaited them: three human bodies were hanging from the tree, as a warning from the fae courts. The group had no time to heed warnings, and they started to search for the moss they needed. They didn't know they were being watched.

A whatchamacallit, hidden in the dark branches of the tree, attacked the group as they approached. The beast was dispatched with little effort, however, and the group gathered all the moss they would need. They also discovered a hidden cache that contained the possessions of the three hanging corpses. Going from the contents (two crossbows, two short swords, a well-made short bow, a silver ring bearing the image of a burning hawk, and several coins), the corpses were likely not lumberjacks. Hunters, maybe. After giving last rights to the corpses, the group moved on.

After crossing the river, the party came across a very odd thing. The bodies of three pixies, bled dry and left to rot. Not wanting to get wrapped up in the courts of the fae, the group kept moving, and made camp not much farther ahead.

Saria, who took the first watch, spotted a dragon as it flew overhead. Thankfully, the beast did not notice the group, and kept on flying. It was a quiet night after that.

In the morning, the group continued their travels, and arrived at the hut of the witch who might help them find the rat's tail root. The building seemed abandoned, with only a simple cauldron sitting outside the door. Axfow tried to knock on the door, but received no answer.

Then, he opened the door, and the cauldron attacked him.

After a fight that was far more challenging than any fight against a freaking cauldron has any right to be, the group was victorious. Saria discovered that inside the pot was a magical answering machine made out of a shrunken head. Ew.

Inside the witch's shack, they found that it was, indeed, abandoned long ago. After a few minutes of searching, they found the rat's tail, leaving only one item left to try and cure the plague: the iron bloom mushroom, which only grows inside a haunted dwarven monastery.

No exp. was earned this night. Of the loot found in the whatchamacallit's stash, Calathes claimed a crossbow and the signet ring.

I'm good. I emailed you the redone character sheet, and if you want me to send you the backstory, I will.

I think that Talathel (elven rogue) might be a former member of a thieves' guild of some sort, who is trying to put his past behind him and make a living as an adventurer.

I've got a rogue, so that's no problem. How should I send you the character sheet when it's done? I usually use HeroLab.

Scratch what I said earlier. I think I'm going to make a rogue. And don't worry, I'm not going to make the kind of rogue that steals for the sake of stealing.

Character Creation Guidelines.

Books Allowed: CRB, APG, UC, UM. Other sources upon request.

Characters: 1st level.
Wealth: Class Average
Attributes: Standard Fantasy 15 point. No stat dumping. Min stat 10 prior to racial adjustment.
Traits: 2
Races: Vanilla Core, if interested in something else inquire.
Disallowed Classes: Gunslinger, Summoner.

Try to make a well-rounded characters.

I'm thinking of trying a sorcerer. Never played a spellcaster before.