Well, I recently got this campaign restarted after finding two new players to bring into the game. (Thanks Paizo gamer connection messageboard!) One of the new players has decided to create an in character journal of the adventure and has been emailing out to everyone in the group to enjoy. I think he is doing such an entertaining(and excellent!) job that I suggested we start a journal here so that everyone can enjoy. Plus, all the players in the game can give in or out of character commentary as they feel like it. Enjoy!
A few notes about the game: We are using the pathfinder beta rules and I expect we will switch to the PRPG when the book comes out in August. I am also allowing some splatbook stuff to be used on a limited basis. I will give some details about the characters in a future post.
DAY 1, ENTRY 1: Hi there! My name is Koz Blacktoes. I heard there was a goblin raid on the town of Sandpoint, so I'm heading there now to kill me some goblins. Some people say I'm a racist, but that's not true--I want to kill everyone equally! It's just that men with swords don't chase after you when you kill goblins, so there's that.
ENTRY 2: Met some cool guys today who want help killing goblins. There's Human, Elf, Dwarf, and Half-Orc. I don't know too much about them yet, but Half-Orc is really funny and cool. He even drank my piss!
ENTRY 3: Okay, here's the story. Raid was cover to rob a graveyard. These goblins got style! The goblins are planning a second raid. Lead goblin is named Ripnugget. That is a funny name (Note to self: be sure to rip his "nuggets"). They're also working with a bugbear and something called a quasit. Also, there's a woman working with them that wants to become a demon or something like that. She apparently has a new hand that's not very pleasing. Human say I can kill her and any other humans working with the goblins! I can't wait to kill her!
ENTRY 4: We came into some catacombs underneath the town. Elf is very smart and came up with the best plan ever: kill them before they kill you. I will do my best to remember that plan, but I've never been too good at following them.
ENTRY 5: First room we found had a statue of a cool looking woman. She had a nice ranseur, but the others didn't recognize its value. Fortunately, they had me with them to correct them on this. If there's one thing I know, it's the value of weapons. Also, she also had a book with a funny-star on it. Not a really book, it was part of the statue, mind you.
ENTRY 6: We encountered some ugly, squishy things. I tried to follow Elf's plan, and I killed one, but another bit me and I passed out. Dwarf fixed me back up though. He's not much fun, but that makes him alright in my book. Sadly, the squishies look like they would be good to eat.
ENTRY 7: Next room had some torture toys in it. I don't really understand torture. Why would you want to torture someone when you can just kill and eat them?
ENTRY 8: Next room had pits with rotting things in them. They don't look like they would be good eating either. Dwarf says we'll come back to kill them later. At least I'll have that to look forward to.
ENTRY 9: By the way, Human has been searching for traps. He must be really good because he hasn't missed one yet! Well, technically I suppose there haven't been any traps, but you know, if there were, I'm sure he would find them. Anyway, the door to the next room had that funny star on it. Inside was the coolest room ever! Not only does it have magic that lets you float around, but it had a dead raven in it! There was some other boring stuff there too that the others like, but now I have a new pet. I'll think I will call him Pretty Bird.
ENTRY 10: We found some stairs that were caved in, and then returned to the room with the rotting corpse things in the pits. There were a couple humans there and one big, ugly goblin with extra limbs coming out of his head! At first, I thought these humans were working with the goblins, and I could kill them like Old Human said I could, but Dwarf said they weren't, so unfortunately, I didn't get to kill them. Anyway, the ugly goblin pressed a switch and the rotting corpse things started rising out of the floor. Note to self: don't kill tomorrow what you can kill today. I got to kill three of them! After the fight, I showed Pretty Bird to New Human, and he seemed most impressed. He said his name was Victor and his friend was Jethro (Old Human is named Dale apparently). Also, Dwarf calls himself Stewt. Still don't know names for Half-Orc or Elf though.
ENTRY 11: I have mixed feelings. Yes, I got a shiny new axe from the ugly goblin, but that means its time to say goodbye to an old friend. I had a lot of good memories killing things with him, but it is time to move on.
ENTRY 12: We returned to the room with the statue of the cool-looking lady in it. To the side was another room with a pool of blood! Two flying head things came out, and I'm sorry to admit, I was overcome with fear. I am so ashamed! I have done a great disservice to halflings everywhere, and not only that, I missed all the fun killing them!
ENTRY 13: After the pool of blood room, we found some more stairs that were caved in. There are now just one more set of corridors to check out. The next room we found had an altar that is dedicated to someone called Lammashtu. There was a basin filled with water on the altar, and Victor said it was most foul. It must be true because Half-Orc wouldn't drink it, and he drank my piss!
ENTRY 14: After the foul water room, we found a cathedral with walls carved with runes. There was a large pool decorated with a ring of skulls (so cool!) with a second, smaller pool on a raised platform. The smaller pool was filled with some orange water that was really cold. I saw some red drops fall into the pool, and out popped one of those ugly fleshy things, but I killed him soon enough. There was also a little demon lady there too, and she was tough. She blasted us with something that made me feel all icky inside, and it really hurt. After Half-Orc pinned her to the ground, I kept attacking her with my axes, but they didn't seem to hurt her all that much. Nonetheless, I got the killing blow on her, and Half-Orc chopped off her head to make sure, but she was already dead I tell you. He's not steeling credit for my kill!
ENTRY 15: Victor lets everyone know that Jethro is dead, but he was able to raise him again. I asked if he could raise Pretty Bird, but he said he couldn't, at least not yet. Still, I have the coolest friends!
ENTRY 16: We return to town to heal up. All in all, I had a good day. I killed three rotting corpse things, two ugly fleshy things, and the little demon chick (I killed her, not you Half-Orc!). Also, I made some cool new friends, met Pretty Bird, and got a shiny new axe.
DAY 2, ENTRY 1: We returned to Sandpoint to rest up, and then we went shopping. Ox (the half-orc) is grumbling about the demon chick shattering his greataxe, but I don't know why he's so upset. I mean, it's not like it was really important or anything. I checked my entries from yesterday, and it wasn't even written down! Anyway, with my share of the loot we sold, I got my armor enchanted and bought me a new handaxe to match the one I took off the ugly goblin. We all pitched in to buy a wand for Stewt so he can heal us up when we're hurt. I was talking to Victor about Pretty Bird. He said he was researching how to raise her and make her his familiar. I like the idea of having an undead raven, but not sure I like the idea of Victor being familiar with Pretty Bird. This sheds some light on his relationship with Jethro though. Hoover (the elf) found out some information on the goblins. The ones behind the raid are from the Thistletop in the Nettlewood. They live on an island that looks like a decapitated head (I want one!) We're going to head out there and kill some goblins!
ENTRY 2: Victor talks to Jethro. A lot! This seems to annoy Ox for some reason. I asked Pretty Bird for her opinion, but she didn't have anything to say. Dale and Hoover scout on ahead and find a thistle door in the briars. Dale says it's is free of traps, and it is! He is never wrong about these things. Everyone but me is too tall to walk through these thistle tunnels though. In the tunnels, we found a large hole. It sounds like there is a large creature down there. Some claw marks around the hole seem to indicate that goblins are thrown down there as a sacrifice or punishment. Or maybe they just fall down there a lot. Goblins are stupid like that.
ENTRY 3: We encountered four goblin dogs, and made short work of them. I killed one myself, and didn't get hit back.
ENTRY 4: As we were walking down the tunnels, a goblin with a flaming sword comes out of the thistles and hits Ox before jumping back. The thistles seem to move around him. He must be a druid.
ENTRY 5: We approach some type of natural watchtower. A bunch of goblins were lurking there. Ox charged forward, and the goblin druid returned again to attack him. I helped him out in fighting off the druid, and even bit his ear off. The coward ran off then. Some goblin dogs came from behind to keep the others busy while Ox and I took care of the goblins. I killed two of them, but dumb Ox let one get away. I carve some meet off the fallen goblins to store in my pot. I'm going to make stew later!
ENTRY 6: We track down the druid. He called the others longshanks. That's a good word for them. The goblin's name is Gogmurt. He's not happy with Ripnugget and his allies: an angry human woman with a torn up belly, a bugbear mercenary named Bruthazmus, and some half-elf that Hoover and Stewt said they already killed (and I missed it!) Gogmurt says that once he takes over, the goblins won't attack Sandpoint anymore. I still plan to kill him, but for now, I'll focus on killing this lady. I can always kill more goblins, but it's not often that I can kill humans. At least, not without men with pointy swords chasing after me. The druid arranges for some of the goblins to let us in.
ENTRY 7: We found a rope bridge that leads to the head-shaped island. It really does look like the head of some giant statue. Dale says it was probably once a monument in ancient Thassilon. He also says the bridge has been rigged in someway, but we cross it safe enough. There is a stockade on the island. The door was barred from the inside, and I had to climb over the walls to let the longshanks in. Inside, there was a room decorated with the severed heads of horses and dogs. It was so cool!
ENTRY 8: We found a food storage room, and I looted some pickles for my goblin stew. There was a watchtower nearby. A climbed up the stairs and found two goblins asleep after gorging on pickles. I very quietly yelled "Goblins!" and killed them.
ENTRY 9: We next found a courtyard with some dead goblins lying by an outbuilding. There was a horse in the building, and some rabbits. Rabbits will go great with goblin stew! My pot was getting full, so I dumped some of the goblin meet to make room. Not all of it though--always good to have some variety. Ox feeds the horse some pickles and make nice. It looks like the horse was responsible for killing the goblins outside, so I like him. Dale says he has heard that traveling merchants were robbed by goblins and that the goblins took their prize warhorse, Shadowmist. Dale says there will be a reward back in Sandpoint. I like the horse even better now!
ENTRY 10: Not much to report. Found a boring room with a table and chairs. Also, found some stairs that go down. We decide better to kill everything on this level before heading down.
ENTRY 11: We returned to the trophy room and went through the other double doors. They led to yet more double doors. These doors were locked, but Dale opened them. Inside was a large room covered in furs, dog pelts, and horse hides. An ugly goblin sat on throne with a shiny crown on his head. This must be Ripnugget. He had a pet giant lizard and ten minion goblins with them. We fight! I try to bite, Ripnugget, but miss. I manage to hit him with my axes five times before I start to get tired. I hit him twice more and he falls, and then I take out his lizard. Ox stood nearby to offer me morale support while the others took care of the other goblins. Victor summoned a skeleton to fight for him, and took out one goblin with some acid magic. How cool is that! Unfortunately for him, Jethro fell down. Victor got really mad at the goblin and tried to fight up close and personal, but by then Ox had finished his morale support and took down the goblin for him. Ouevre took out four goblins with his bow, Stewet got two, and Dale one as well. Jethro turned out to be okay, and Victor says he was only playing dead. He's really good at that, just like Pretty Bird. I cut up some pieces from the giant lizard and gather some "Ripnuggets" for my stew. Ripnugget also have a magic dogslicer which Koz take in addition to the axe that big, ugly goblin under the glassworks had. I tried to put the crown on Pretty Bird, but it was two big for her. Koz will have to wear it instead.
ENTRY 12: Dale was paying an awful a lot of attention to the one wall, and then he disappeared through it. Pretty Bird bravely volunteered to check it out, and I helped her fly with my sling. She vanished too! I followed and found a latrine. Pretty Bird fell in it! I went back to the throne room and cut off a goblin's arm to scoop her out of it, and then dumped my waterskin on her to clean her back up. Poor Pretty Bird! Dale comes back with a chest full of shiny coins. Stewt, being a good dwarf, volunteered to carry the heavy thing. Dale says the chest was trapped, but he found it. He always finds the traps! On a related note, one of the goblins must have cut him earlier because I just noticed that he was bleeding.
ENTRY 13: The rest of the ground floor was empty and boring, so we head down below. Found an ancient dungeon. The first room had some dog pelts and lots and lots of doors, some of which lead to more doors! We found another set of double doors. These doors were made of stone and were carved with monsters clawing their way out of pregnant demon chicks. Victor says this is a scene typical of churches to Lamashtu. Inside was a large T-shaped room. Some fonts containing water were near the entrance, and there were a bunch of pillars. The far end led up to a platform containing a black marble altar in front of a large statue of a very pregnant yet shapely naked woman with a kukri in each of her taloned hands, and long lizard tail, and the head of a three-eyed jackal. Victor says this is Lamashtu. While the others cautiously checked out this chapel while I cleaned Pretty Bird in one of the fonts. Some flying dogs came and made a terrible howl. I was so scared, I even dropped Pretty Bird and ran off. Dale and Ouevre got scared and ran too. I came to my senses first, and with a shout of "Pretty Bird," ran back to the others. I hit one of the hounds with my new dogslicer, but it had no effect on the creature! I need to learn how to better hit creatures like the demon chick and these flying dogs. Ox's longsword and Ouevre's arrows didn't seem to be any more effective against these hounds, but Stewt and Victor were able to hurt them with acid magic, and Dale used a silver dagger to kill one. Victor got the other one. Dale checked out the statue and found a secret drawer with some more valuable stuff. No weapons though, so got bored and made sure Pretty Bird was alright.
ENTRY 14: We found another torture room with lots of cell doors and a cage hanging over a fire pit. Next we came to a tanning room where Koz found some keys, but dumb Ox stole them and claimed he found them instead! Lucky for him we found four goblin chicks in the next room, and I quickly killed two of them. Ox got the other two. We found a smelly piece of armor there which we think belongs to that bugbear. The next room was full of cages which Ox says is for goblin babies. I wonder what they taste like.
ENTRY 15: One of the doors led to a natural cavern. We heard the sounds of crashing waves which led us to a vine-draped opening overlooking the Varisian gulf. Some ugly squid-creature with two long tentacles came at us. This well endowed squid at a stinger on one of them. Ox gets stung before Oevre kills it. We found a bunch of dead bodies nearby, mostly sea creature but there were six goblins that were just skin and bones with everything else eaten away. The one goblin had some magic hide armor and a well made shortbow. I take the shortbow just in case I need to shoot something like Ouevre.
ENTRY 16: We returned to the dungeons and came to another room with crude drawings of goblins attacking horses, dogs, and humans. There was also a fancy drawing of a 30 foot giant goblin with two dogslicers in each hand! I hope we don't have to fight that.
ENTRY 17: Beyond the art gallery was another locked door which Dale opens. There were a bunch of people beyond including a bugbear, a strange human chick with a wand, some hum dude with a big sword, and a half-elf Ouevre and Stewt called Tsuto. I thought they said they killed him, but I must have been mistaken. I think it's time to rectify that situation. I bet half-elf would be great in my stew!
He even drank my piss!
You must have known in pointing me to this thread that I would want to know the full story behind this scrumptious urophagia. Please provide, gentle scribe.
You must have known in pointing me to this thread that I would want to know the full story behind this scrumptious urophagia. Please provide, gentle scribe.
He even drank my piss!
See, we were trying to recruit Ox for some added muscle. He was being pretty rude, so one of the others (I believe it was Oevre) swipped his drink. He started complaining and demanding we pay to refill his cup, so Koz obliged him. And then he drank it.
ENTRY 18: I forget to mention the six goblins before. But they're, you know, goblins, so not all that important. Fun to kill though. Anyway, I ran in after Tsuto (I can always kill goblins, but half-elfs and humans are a rare treat), but the pansy tumbled away and hid behind Bruthazmus, the coward. Wand Chick made four twins of herself which is alright by me. More to kill! Dale made Big Sword fall down laughing, and he and Ox ganged up on him. Stewt made me feel good and happy (well, better and happier--I was already pretty happy to be killing things), and then he and Jethro went after the goblins. Victor joined in the fun on Big Sword and started blasting him with acid, and Oevre fired his arrows at Bruthazmus.
The Wand Chicks fired a wand at me and blasted me with some sort of magic bolt. I bloodied my new dog slicer on Bruthazmus. He can't hit me back with his flail because he sucks. Tsuto tried to stab me in the back, but he sucks too. He soon gives up and starts shooting at Ox. With Tsuto out of the way, I closed on Wand Chick while fighting Bruthazmus, and I hit her with my dog slicer when she blasts me again. That'll show her!
Ox gave up on Big Sword for some reason and decided to go after the goblins instead. He was having trouble getting through his armor methinks, and wanted squishier targets, but I know it’s the quality not quantity of the kill that makes it fun. Shortly after, I took down Bruthazmus for instance. What would you rather kill, a bugbear ranger or a few goblins? I'll let you think on that for a minute.
The Wand Chicks backed away from me so I couldn't hit her while she cast a spell. She hit me with a fiery ray that really hurt! Dale began telling funny jokes that made me feel even better than Stewt's spell. Victor stopped with the acid, and began feeling up Big Sword with glowing hands with some ice starting to form on them. I took out two of the Wand Chicks, but they just vanished so I couldn’t put them in my stew. They zap me again, this time with a pale green ray, and I start feeling weak. Those witches are going to die, even if I can't put them in my stew.
With Ox taking care of the goblins, Stewt goes back to Big Sword to help Dale gang up on him. One of the goblins Ox hurts starts to giggle (big dumb Ox can't finish a goblin in one hit?). Victor does the hand thing on Big Sword again and he finally stops laughing. Oevre takes out another of the vanishing Wind Chicks, and I get another leaving only one left. Tsuto stops firing with his bow and returns to stab me in the back, and this time he hits, leaving me rather hurt. Stewt patches me and my friends all the way up though.
Oevre hits the last Wand Chick, and this one doesn't vanish. The pointy-eared freak stole my kill! He'll regret this someday. I hear elf is really tasty. In any case, I turn my attention to Tsuto and hit him, but not very hard thanks to Wand Chick's strength sapping ray. Stewt tries to heal us up again, but he doesn't do a very good job of it this time. At least I have the excuse of being zapped by the freaky Wand Chick. What's his excuse?
The pansy Tsuto tries to run away, but Victor does his hand thing on him and Oevre tackles him. I start carving up Bruthazmus for my stew while the others question the half-elf. He has a nice bow for me though, and I also get a healing potion from the loot that we take. Dale got some arrows that are supposedly good at killing elves. I wonder if he'll let me borrow them sometime when Oevre's sleeping.
ENTRY 19: Tsuto isn't talking, but then I show him my stew pot, and he starts spilling all he knows. He works for a demon-armed chick named Nualia, who discovered this place and the ruins under Sandpoint. Nualia wants to turn herself into a demon, which sounds pretty cool in my book, and she is a worshiper of Lamashtu (not surprising). Tsuto says she down on the lower level with more of those hound things and some undead things that can walk through walls. Victor says Jethro can't do that--yet. There is also some evil creature down there that Nualia want's to set free that sounds like that giant goblin we saw drawn in the other room. Tsuto says that's all he knows, so I killed him with my dogslicer. The others gave me a funny look, but he was working with the goblins after all, and Dale said I could anyone who was.
ENTRY 20: We barred the door to the lower level shut and retired to the courtyard. Ox plays nicey-nice with the horse we rescued, which makes me wonder about their relationship. I made up his goblin, bugbear, rabbit, and half-elf stew with tasty Ripnuggets. I call my creation T-stew-to. I offered some to everyone except Oevre (no stew for you, elf!), but they all declined, even Jethro. I don't know why? It was very good and tasted like victory. We then rested for the night.
DAY 3, ENTRY 1: Well, I've got bad news. I didn't kill Oevre in his sleep last night. I didn't like the look the others gave me when I killed a half-elf that was working with the goblins. I can only imagine what they might say if I killed a full elf that was working against the goblins. Oh well, there is always later. The others all have their uses: Stewt to patch me up when I get hurt, Dale to take out the traps, Victor because he's just so damn kill and might one day be able to raise Pretty Bird, and Ox who has the most important job of all: making me look good in comparison! But Oevre, he just kills too many things that I could be killing. One day you'll get yours, elf. One day soon.
ENTRY 2: We went to the lower level of the dungeon, which is even older. The door on the lower floor was pretty damage, but we could make out some images of gemstones and crown. I like the crown I took off Ripnugget better. It may not be as pretty as the crowns on the door, but it's more statisfying when you kill someone for it. The room beyond the door had a pair of pillars and four alcoves, each of which had damaged statues of a robed man with a glaive and a book with that funny seven-point star again. This room was safe, but Dale said that he thought the next hallway was trapped, although he couldn't find one. Dale has found all the traps so far, but this one eluded even him!
A pair of statue with more glaives flanked the hallway, and there was a third statue on the far end of the hall beyond doors to the left and right. The latter statue was missing from the waste up. Dale thinks the square between the two glaive men statues was trapped, so I gracefully jumped over that square. Then Ox came trumbling along with all the grace of his namesake, running just past the statues as their glaves came down. Dale was then able to figure out to disable the trap. He said that had Ox been struck by the glaives, two portcullis would have fallen down and trapped him between the statues while the chopped him up, and then a pit would open to dispose his remains. This sounded real cool, and I'm quite sad that I didn't get to see this happen to Ox. We're going to head into the left door now.
ENTRY 3: Big dumb Ox! I so wish he fell in that trap back in the hallway.
Sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself here. Beyond the door we found a round marble chamber lit by four burning skulls. Nothing makes a place feel like home like burning skulls. On stone ledges lining the walls were teeth, bones, jars of deformed creatures soaking in brine, taxidermied animals and limbs, and other cools objects as well as some more boring things like scroll, books, and scrimshaw artwork. At the back of the room was a large bubbling fountain.
Oh, and that demon armed chick Nualia was there too with two more of those flying doggie things. She was quite beautiful, with the exception of her demon arm and her torn up belly which was left bare and unprotected. They were exceptionally beautiful. See what I did there? Dale would be impressed!
Speaking of Dale, he wasted no time on making some slippery grease around Nualia. Stewt moved into the room and began firing his acid darts at the dooggies. Nualia cast some protective spell on herself and the doggies went after Ox. Victor cast a spell on Nualia. I'm sure would have been really cool had it worked, but unfortunately he did not. Dumb Ox attacked the doggies, having forgotten that his weapons weren't very effective on them yesterday. I was smart and ran around them to get at Nualia, and Oevre began shooting at her.
Dale drew his silver dagger and ganged up on one of the doggies with Jethro. Nualia slashed me good with her sword, but I was able to avoid her claw at least. Stewt said a prayer that made Koz happy, and I hit Nualia with Ripnugget's dog slicer and the big ugly goblin's handaxe. I tried to bite her too, but she was too quick for me. Dumb Ox figures out that he can't hurt the doggies and decides to go after Nualia as well, and Oevre hits her with a really nasty hit with an arrow. The pansy then got scarred of the hounds and ran off. I bravely held my ground this time, I'm pleased to say. The others all hung in there as well, except for Oevre of course.
Victor zapped Nualia with the same kind of strength sapping ray that Wand Chick used on me yesterday. She backed away and unleashed that same icky energy thing the Demon Chick used on us under Sandpoint. I skated through the grease to get to her, something that was easy accomplished for one of my grace and skill. This time I bit her good, but then big dumb Ox came in and hit her with his longsword! That orc bastard! He stole my kill! He even had to take the long way around to do it too! He's got no grace, no skill, and is just a big dumb brute! I don't care if he drinks my piss anymore, if he's going to keep stealing kills from me, he's going to end up dead like Oevre one of these days!
Sorry, now where was I? Ah yes, shortly after Ox...er, shortly after Nualia fell, Dale took out one of the doggie. The other doggie was doing a number on Jethro, so he had to fall back. I help set up the other doggie for Dale's dagger, but the doggie dropped him after he struck. I got the dagger as Stewt struck the doggie with an acid dart, nearly downing the beast. It tried playing dead, so I stabbed it a few times to finish it off. The others all think Stewt killed him, but we both know better. The quiet dwarf heals me when I'm hurt and makes me feel even happier about killing things, so I'll let him have the credit this time.
Oevre came back from wherever he ran off too, and I was glad to see that nothing bad happened to him while he was gone. I plan to kill him myself someday, and I don't want anyone to take that away from me. Ox too. Maybe even Stewt and Dale if I'm in a bad enough mood, but not Victor. He's just too cool to kill. Unless, maybe he wanted to become undead and need someone to kill him first. I would be proud to do that for my dear friend someday.
Ah, the others are talking about this medallion that Nualia had with that funny star on it. They're calling it a Sihedron Rune or something like that. I better go find out what they're talking about.
ENTRY 4: We returned to the hallway with the wicked-cool trap, then tried the door opposite the room where we fought Nualia. This one led to a L-shaped corridor. To the left was an intricate carving of a huge bag of coins carved with weird runes that shimmered as if it were made of gold. Stewt got excited by this. He was even breathing heavy and everything. Dwarfs are a strange race. Oh, and stupid Ox tries to take one of the coins from the carving! He soon gave up and opened the double doors to the south instead. Victor has grown uncharacteristically quiet all of a sudden. He's not even talking to Jethro! He must be thinking really hard about something.
Beyond was a room with four pillars and six alcoves, five of which contained standing sarcophagi and the sixth another statue of the dour-faced man with the book and glaive. Three shadow things came up through the floor, but my magic dog slicer hit them easily enough. One of them hits Ox and he starts to get weak. I finished off the shadow I hurt earlier and went to help him out, but my weapons didn't seem to work when I was standing next to Ox. He's bad luck. Anyway, Stewt make glowly-light that took out the shadow that was attacking Ox, but not before it maed him even weaker. Oevre shoot down the last with his bow, but after I softened him up with my dog slicer. Stupid elf always mooching off my work. When I kill him, I'll start an ear-necklace like Bruthazmus.
ENTRY 5: Sadly, it looks like I won't be killing Oevre anytime soon. He finally found a use other than stealing my kills--he can find secret doors! He found one in the room where we faced the shadows, which led to a flooded treasury. There was a giant gold helmet amongst other salvageable trinkets, so Ox tied a rope to Oevre, who waded out and investigate. A giant crab came out and attacked him. Ox and Stewt wade in after him, but the water was too deep for me to follow. I used my sling for a change and began smacking the crab with rocks. Stewt gets hurt pretty bad and has to back up to heal himself, while Oevre just withdrew because he's a coward. He drops the crab with a shot from his bow. Stupid elf. If only he couldn't find secret doors.
There were some more carvings on the walls here. Most depicted vast treasure, but one in particular depicted a towering mountain, its peak carved in the shape of a stern face just above a great palace overlooking a city of spires. Victor breaks his silence to say this city is the legendary Xin-Shalast, a city that supposedly hidden in the Kodar Mountains. Legends say the city had streets of gold and buildings carved from immense gems. Many have tried to find the fabled city, but all have failed, and most failed to even return alive. He then went quiet again.
ENTRY 6: We returned to the gold carving that Stewt. Oevre finds ten slots in the wall. Ox tries to put copper in them, but nothing happens. He switches to gold coins, and after putting one in each slot, the pillar sinks into the ground, much to Stewt's dismay. Beyond was a room with three sets of double doors.
The first set of double doors led to a room with two more statues of that dour man with the glaive and book. He must be really important with all these statues of him. A ghostly figure is seated on a throne between them. It's him! He seems to be addressing an audience in some strange language. Dale translates what he says: "...is upon us, but I command you remain. Witness my power, how Alzanist's petty wrath is but a flash compared to my strength. Take my final work to your graves, and let its memory be the last thing you...." He was unable to translate the rest. I throw a stone at the guy just to see what happens. Sadly, nothing does.
The second set of double doors led to a room containing three low tables covered with tools, saws, and long bladed knives. I take the knives to help carve up meet for some tasty stew. There is also a pile of bones here, too many for one skeleton, but too few for two. Ox finds a bladed seven-point star shaped device with a curved handle. He put it in his pants for some reason.
The last set of double doors were locked, and Dale couldn't open them. There is a slot shaped like a seven-point star, so Ox whips his thingie out of his pants and sticks in the slot. This opened the door onto a room lit by a fire pit. Oevre says there is something in the pit, and big monster that looks kind of like a werewolf emerges. Ox, and I gang up on it. Stewt hits with an acid dart and then joined us in the fight Dale tried to make it laugh like Big Sword, but his spell fails. Victor uses a ray of sap it off some of its strength before switching to splashes of acid, and Oevre stays back and shoots arrows as he always does. The beastie hurts Stewt really bad, but I get mad and hit got him back with my dog slicer. Dale sings a song that made me feel happy (an angry happy mind you) and Stewt strikes the beastie as well, but then the beastie takes out Stewt before turning his attention to Ox.
I mentioned earlier that Ox was bad luck. By this point in the fight, Ox still had yet to hit the beastie. In fact, Stewt hit the floor more often the Ox hit the beastie (which to be fair to the dwarf is only once). Unfortunately, his bad luck doesn't stick only to him. After Stewt went down, Ox's bad luck rubbed off on me, and I couldn't hit the beastie any more.
Dale revived Stewt with his wand, and the dwarf started spewing that bright light out from where he was lying flat on his back. This light helped heal our wounds, and it’s a good thing too because I got hit by the beastie! Ox must have satisfied his bad luck quota for the day, because we both starting hitting again (well, I hit him twice more, and Ox hit him for the first time). Dale tried to make the beastie laugh again, but he has no more success then the first time he tried it. The beastie hits Ox again.
Things turned in our favor after that: first I hit with both my weapons, then Victor struck with a splash of acid, and then Ox hit once more, and finally Stewt struck the creature down with an another acid dart. At least Oevre didn't kill it this time. In fact, I don’t remember even seeing him do much against the beastie at all. Either that, or he's really stealthy. I'll have to be careful with this one.
Ox found a strange metal rod, that turns into a greataxe when he picks it up. No fair! We also find two rings, a bar of silver, and a whole bunch of magic candles. We return to the courtyard to make camp.
ENTRY 7: I made rabbit stew, and this time everyone had some. Sadly, it wasn't as good as T-stew-to. I only had rabbits to work with this time. I wanted to add some horse, but Ox wouldn't let me kill it. Stupid Ox. After dinner, I chatted with Victor on how to kill some of these stranger creatures we encountered so far: he says the demon chick we fought under Sandpoint is called a quasit, and she's vulnerable to weapons made from cold iron or holy weapons. The flying doggies are called yeth hounds, and they are susceptible to silver weapons. The beastie we just fought is called a barghest, and he's weak against magic weapons (like my dog slicers). We're returning to Sandpoint tomorrow, so I can pick up a silver and cold iron hand axe then. I'm going to snuggle with Pretty Bird and sleep for the night. I don't have a watch for some reason, almost as if they didn't trust me to watch over them as they sleep. Go figure.
DAY 4, ENTRY 1: On the way back to Sandpoint, we encountered about a dozen goblins, one of which was mounted on a goblin dog, accompanied by two more goblin dogs and a hobgoblin. They were attacking a Kelshite merchant caravan. I ran first into the fray. Stewt is slow and has trouble keeping up, but Dale was nice and kept pace with him so he wouldn’t be embarrassed. Big Dumb Ox ran right past one of the goblins. Well, maybe he's not as dumb as he looks (he'd almost have to be!) as I quickly cut off that goblins head. Meanwhile, Oevre starting shooting with his bow and Dale used his magic wand to fire missiles at the goblins.
Stewt closed into melee with the mounted goblin, and one dumb goblin set himself on fire and jumped at the dwarf. He missed and landed on his face, but then he exploded! Not only did he hurt Stewt, but set the wagon on fire. Oevre had at this point taking down the mounted goblin with his bow, and I had downed a second goblin. Victor conjured some grease to slip the goblin doggies up. I am ashamed to admit that I did something really stupid next...I tried to help Ox. Naturally, I started missing the goblins as I got too close to him and his bad luck. That's what I get for trying to be nice!
One of the goblin doggies got out of the grease and went after Victor. I tried to help him, but I was still standing too close to Ox, so I couldn't. Stupid Jethro saved Victor and showed me up. He then smirked at me! Come to think of it, he's always smirking. If I could only figure out to get rid of him without making Victor angry, then Victor and me could be best buds! But I digress.
Remember that the wagon was on fire? Well, Stewt finished off the one goblin dog that had a goblin mounted on him, and then he began creating water to put out the fire. The hobgoblin tried to run, but Victor summoned a rotting corpse undead thing to stop him. Victor is so cool! I danced through the grease past the last goblin dog and dropped the hobgoblin. See? I got away from Ox and started killing goblins again. That proves he's bad luck. I won't make the mistake of getting to close to him again, that's for sure. I tried chasing down the last of the goblins, but Oevre stole my kill again. I hate that stupid elf! At least he doesn't smirk about it like Jethro.
The final tally: Oevre got four goblins (including the mounted one), Stewt took out one goblin dog, Jethro took out one goblin and one goblin dog, Ox took outs three goblins and one goblin dog, I got the hobgoblin and two more goblins, and one goblin killed himself. I figure a hobgoblin must be worth like three goblins at least, so I win!
One of the merchants thanked us and told us to visit his brother for some good deals. At least, that's what I heard. I was busy gathering up meat for a new stew from the hobgoblin and the two goblins that I killed. Anyway, we head toward the trading outpost before returning to Sandpoint.
ENTRY 2: Stew turned out great! I call it Hobgoblin Surprise, and it was even better than T-stew-to! Oh, and we divided the treasure we have so far. Ox got the greataxe, Victor claimed Wand Chick's book, Oevre got a magic amulet, I got an extra share of the loot (after we sell the rest), and both Dale and Stewt got magic rings.
DAY 7: Sorry for not writing sooner, but the last few days have been boring. The trading outpost turned out to be three days away! I wish we would have known this sooner. With my share of the loot I picked up a pair of handaxes, one silver and one cold iron. Victor says those are good for killing fiends. Remember how good Dale's dagger was against the flying doggies? Now I'll be ready for them. With my extra share, I had enough left over to enchant the handaxe I took off that ugly goblin freak once we return to Sandpoint. I also got a crystal that I can put on a weapon and it will heal me when I hurt things. That is so cool! Ox thought so too, because he had to go buy one too after he had seen mine. He's not very original with his purchases I guess as he also had to buy an amulet like the one Oevre's claimed. Speaking of the elf, he got some magic mithral chain armor that was shiny, but not good at killing things. Stewt got a crystal too, but his was for his armor and made him better able to resist the weather. He says he's saving the rest of his money to enchant his warhammer when we return to Sandpoint. I don't know what Victor or Dale bought yet, but I'll let you know when find out.
Oh, and remember that merchant we totally saved from those goblins? Well, his brother gave us a free wand that can help recover things that drains your strength, like those shadows that hurt Ox. He also hooked me up with some rare meats and spices. Tasty, but not as good as T-stew-to or Hobgoblin Surprise. Ox fashioned a rope necklace to hold her jugs of ale. I'm going to empty one tonight and refill it with my own vintage, if you catch my drift. Big Dumb Ox probably won't even notice.
DAY 8: He didn't notice!
DAY 10, Entry 1: We return to Sandpoint. Stewt and I both got our weapons enchanted, and then we met up with the others at the Rusty Dragon. Ameiko was quite sad to learn that her brother was dead. I tried to cheer her up by letting her know what tasty stew he made, but Ox kept interrupting me. He said it would only upset her more. In hindsight, I should have saved her some. Wait, the sheriff just dropped in and said he had something important to talk to us about. I'll let you know how that turns out.
ENTRY 2: I'm a deputy now!
Perhaps I should explain. Sheriff Hemlock wanted to thank us for taking care of the goblin situation, but now a new problem has arisen. There has been a string of murders while we were away. And it wasn't me! I was out of town with the others. The sheriff is afraid the town will start to panic so he's trying to keep things quiet for now. The most recent killings happened last night at the lumbermill: two bodies were discovered by Ibor Thorn this morning. Most interestingly there was also a message left in blood that said: "I do as you command, master." The note was addressed to Stewt! All this time I thought he was a boring dwarf that we only kept around to heal us, but turns out he's way cooler than we all thought! Not as cool as Victor though.
The sheriff thinks Stewt is innocent, but he was too quick in his desire to clear his name. I can see how it is: we're going to find his lackey and kill him so he can't talk, then blame the whole thing on him. That's fine with me as I know what it's like to have men with sharp swords chasing after you.
Sheriff says the murder scene at the lumbermill is intact, so we'll head there first. He also says that this was the second set of murders. The first set was three men from Galduria. Their bodyguard survived the attack and is being kept in the sanitarium. So far his only suspect is a man named Ven Vinder, but the sheriff thinks he's innocent. He also mentions a strange rune that he thinks bears looking into.
ENTRY 3: Dale asked around and found out that the miller often work late to the annoyance of the neighbors. There were too bodies found at the lumbermill: a worker named Harker and some chick named Katrine. Katrine seems to have been pushed into the log splitter, so she was chopped up pretty good. Harker was left hung up on hooks with his face carved up and his lower jaw missing. His chest has the Sihedron Rune carved into it! I checked my notes, and I didn't right down who identified it before. I bet it was Stewt. If his minion is carving it into bodies, then he must know more then he's letting on about it. Speaking of Stewt, he says that Harker's body also has claw marks on it. Notice how he seemed to know just what to look for.
We search for clues. I find the smell of rotting flesh in some footprints and on a suspiciously bloody axe. I also find some tracks leading to the river as well. As we try to figure out what to do next, Victor relays Jethro's suggestion we try to find out who the chick was. He then compliments Jethro on his good idea, and Jethro starts to smirk again. Stupid Jethrod is always smirking.
ENTRY 4: We go to talk to Ibor Thorn. He's the partner of the dead miller, Banny Harker, and also the one who found the bodies. Victor threatened to kill him and raise him as an undead minion, which was pretty funny in my opinion. Thorn thought so too and started laughing. With his spirits thus raised, Dale was easily able to persuade him to talk and pin the blame on someone else.
Thorn says that Harker had frequent nighttime visits from Katrine Vinder, and that her father Vin was very possessive of his daughter. Stewt says he's holding something back and continues to lean on Thorn. Thorn confesses that Harker was cooking the books. The Scarnettis, the noble family that owns the mill, have a reputation for ruthlessness and Thorn thinks they had Harker killed. Dale confirms their reputation, and says they have rumored ties to organized crime. He didn't have anything more to say, but I told him that if we found out he left something out, that I was going to cook him.
By the way, I've been thinking, and I don't think Stewt is behind the murders. It just doesn't make sense. I mean, why have a minion kill someone for you and deny yourself the pleasure of doing it yourself? But then, the murdered didn't eat the bodies either. Nothing about this case is making any sense.
ENTRY 5: We go to talk to Vin Vinder next. Victor and Ox call his daughter a whore, and he gets really angry. He starts smashing his cot around his cell and everything. I then confront him with my theory on what happened: he went to confront Harker and his daughter, and a scuffle broke out between him and Harker. Katrine tried to stop it, but got knocked into the log splitter by accident. Angered by her death, he then killed Harker in his rage. This only makes him madder, and Dale and Stewt make the rest of us leave so they can talk to him alone for some reason. They learn nothing, although Vinder accused one of us as being involved. Was he the one who framed Stewt?
ENTRY 6: We next went to investigate Vinder's home. Dale finds some love notes in Katrine's room. Ox finds some food in the kitchen and starts to munch down. I found a dagger, and Victor says it is magic, although he's not sure what the enchantment is exactly. I suggest maybe this was the real murder weapon and the axe we found was a decoy. It's hard to carve runes with an axe. A smell the dagger, and it doesn't smell like rotten flesh, but Vinder could have had it cleaned. Victor finds some magic scrolls, and Stewt finds some books linking Vinder to the Scarnettis. Maybe they hired Vinder to kill Harker and didn't know about his daughter "involvement?" Victor and I take the scrolls and dagger as evidence.
ENTRY 7: We talk to Sheriff Hemlock about the first murders next. He says a pair of guards was attacked by a crazy man, but he was subdued. They then found three dead men in a nearby barn. They found a note luring them there with the promise of riches. The note was signed "Your Lordship." Hemlock found out that the men were locally con men that were recently run out of town. They had that Sihedron Rune carved in them. The crazy man, who we learned is named Grayst Sevilla, has a reputation for being a local thug, and is being held Habe's Sanitarium.
We ask the sheriff to see the bodies. Stewt finds claw marks on them, and also notes that the rune seems to be preventing the bodies from decomposing. I so need to learn how to do this! Victor recommends that we talk to a local sage Brodert Quink about the rune, but we decide to head to the Sanitarium first even though it's getting late. Dale says that sometimes men behave differently at night than they do during the day, and wants to see Sevilla then.
ENTRY 8: We arrive at Habe's Santiarium, and the caretaker, Erin Habe lets us in. We ask about Sevilla, and Habe says its better that we see for ourselves. We find him sobbin in the corner with pale skin and wild hair. Dale gets his attention by saying we want to stop the killings. He looks over, and we can see that his eyes are glazed over. Dale calms him down, and he starts to talk. He says Stewt would come, and that his master has a message for him: "The bodies you are finding are signs and portents; that when he is down, Stewt will be remembered forever and the Misgivings shall be his throne."
Sevilla then broke out of his straight jacket and went after Stewt. I take the pot off my head and sit down on it to watch the fight while munching one some smoked meat. While we are in town, I try to be on my best behavior and not kill any humans, so I didn't have any real motivation for joining the fight. Besides, the others surely can handle him on their own.
Victor blinds him. Stewt, Ox, and Oevre all pile on him, but he breaks free and bits Ox, who falls over and stops moving. Stewt unleashes that glowy light thing he does, and it heals Ox and hurts Sevilla. I didn't realize that he could choose to hurt people with that light too. Sevilla turns his attention on Stewt and bites him too, and like Ox, Stewt falls over and stops moving. Jethro then stabs him with his rapier and kills Sevilla. Jethro is a murderer! As deputy of Sandpoint, I can't let this stand. I shall inform the sheriff of this, and he will lock Jethro away, and then I will be Victor's best friend. Speaking of Victor, he says Sevilla was infected with "ghoul fever" and I notice that he smells like the axe, although the stench is not quite as strong on him.
Ox recovers from his paralysis after a few minutes, and then gets real angry. He grabs Habe and demands to know where Sevilla was last night. Habe says that he's been here the last few days and hasn't left the sanitarium. Stewt meanwhile strips Sevilla of his clothes and checks out his dead body. He sure is one strange dwarf. Stewt says he was bitten. Of course, Stewt probably just bit the body himself and says it was already there. Not that I'm judging, mind you. If that's how he gets his kicks, then that's his business.
ENTRY 9: We call it a night and returned to the Rusty Dragon. Ameiko served us dinner which was pretty good, but still not as tasty as Tstewto. I don't say this to her naturally. It wouldn't be polite to offend the cook. Ox makes a move on Ameiko, but she turns him down. The big dumb guys can't hit chicks or goblins apparently. To be honest though, I'm not sure why he would want to. I mean, human women don't even have any hair on her feet! How are you supposed to shave their feet them if they don't get any hair there? Stupid humans.
DAY 11, ENTRY 1: Sheriff Hemlock comes to see us in the morning. I inform him about Jethro's murder, but Hemlock says he did good work? I'm so confused. It's alright to kill humans in town, but only if they are infected? How can I tell this ahead of time? Or better yet, how do I infect them first so killing them is good? I'll have to talk to Dale about this later: he seems to know the most about local laws and customs.
Sorry, I almost forget, the sheriff told us that there was another murder last night: the butcher Chod Bevuk. He was found murdered in his bedroom, with the Sihedron Rune in his chest. Stewt checks the body for bite marks, but finds none. We search his house but don't find anything other then a broken door.
ENTRY 2: We go talk to the sage Brodert Quink next. He is an expert on Varisia and moves to Sandpoint to study the Old Light, a Thassilonian ruin in town commonly thought of as having once been a lighthouse. He seems very excited about the murders, perhaps too much so. I show him that the star-thing we found at Thistletop. He starts talking about Thassilon. He says much lore about Thassilon has been lost, and only the ruins and stories remain. Thassilon was once an empire of wizards that built giant statues that resist erosion over time. He thinks that Thassilon existed at least 10,000 years ago! He also theorizes that the Old Light was not a lighthouse, but rather a weapon that spewed fire from its peak (how cool is that!). He says the Sihedron Rune was a symbol of the Thassilon empire and represents the seven virtues of rule (wealth, fertility, honest pride, abundance, eager striving, righteous anger, and rest) and also the seven schools of magic (the Thassilonians didn't consider divination its own school). He goes on to say that the leaders of the empire weren't so virtuous, and that the seven sins (greed, lust, pride, gluttony, envy, wrath, and sloth) are corruptions of the seven virtues. He suggests that the killer is a scholar, but is quick to point out (too quick if you ask me) that it's not him. I ask about why the rune preserves dead flesh, and he doesn't know. Victor says that he also detected magic on the bodies, so that might be why they weren't rotting.
ENTRY 3: Oevre comes up with a theory about the murders. He thinks the murders have something to do with the seven sins. The con men were killed first, and they embody greed. Next was Harker and Katrine, too lovers who represent lust. There's some debate as to what the butcher represents, but if the killer is killing in the same order as Quink listed the sins, then next would be pride. We find out that he is the only butcher in town and was thus able to charge a premium for his services. This would make one rather proud, no?
ENTRY 4: We return to the Rusty Dragon, and Dale gives a comedic performance. The people there seemed to like it, but I think it would be funnier if there was more killing in it. I tell him so and we retire for the night.
DAY 12, ENTRY 1: The next morning, Sheriff Hemlock comes again and says he's got a new lead: a drunk man named Farmer Grump comes to town mumbling a Varisian nursery rhyme:
Mumble Mumble Scarecrow,
Alone in the maize.
Sleeping in the daytime,
A stitched man he stays.
But when the moon she rises,
Up Mumble gets.
He shakes his hands at first
And moves his feet the next.
And when the dog is snoring,
And when you're fast asleep,
Mumble Mumble Scarecrows
Will find you good to eat.
This is much funnier that what Dale did last night! Stewt checks the farmer over for bites, but finds him clean. Farmer Grump says the southern farms are plagued by walking corpses. The locals all got eaten, and they even ate the dogs. That's just wrong. The dogs should be eating the locals with the walking corpses.
ENTRY 2: Victor takes another look at Vinder's dagger, and says that it is extra good at killing humans. Sadly, I seemed to have misplaced this piece of evidence. The others stock up on supplies including holy water and silver weapons, but I get myself a new magic dagger that's extra deadly against humans instead. It was a real good deal too!
ENTRY 3: We head to the farms outside of town. He continue to hear rumors of trouble to the south. As we head further in that direction, he wind the farms have been abandoned and some appear to even has been attacked. At one of this farms, there are claw prints everywhere and I find a trail of blood, as if someone wounded were dragged out of a building. Sadly, it disappears when it reaches the path. We reach another abandoned farm and decide to hold up there as dusk is soon approaching.
ENTRY 4: Ox and Oeuvre disappeared in the bushes together. Ox was so drunk, he probably thought Oeuvre was a chick. And Oeuvre, well, he's an elf. 'Nuff said.
ENTRY 5: As we approached the farm, Dale spotted four scarecrows. He shot one and it grunted. Victor fired a magic ray at it then, but he missed. Ox must have been teaching him how to aim. Two of the scarecrows jumped down from their poles and attacked. I struck one with my handaxe. Victor then summoned an owlbear skeleton and it killed the scarecrow I injured. Stewt hit the other one, and then I cut it down with my weapons. Stewt then went to one of the scarecrows still on the poles and ripped its mask off. There was an unconscious human in there! Being a good deputy, I decided it best to check the one I killed. I wouldn't want to get in trouble for murder! Well, a murder I didn't commit. Well, a murder I didn't knowingly commit at least.
Anyway, the scarecrow I killed had a rotting corpse inside. Stewt checked the last scarecrow, and there was a human in there too. He said, "Kill me." Stewt strips the man and checks his body, starting with his crotch for some reason. Victor gets worried that Stewt might have checked out Jethro like that. Stewt found a bite mark and said the man was infected with ghoul fever. That's what Sevilla had! Taking the new dagger that I did not steal from Vin Vinder's home, I stabbed the man. Stab stab stab!
Stewt was shocked and asked what I was doing? I remind him that Sheriff Hemlock not only didn't arrest Jethro for killing Sevilla, he said killing the man was good work. After that, Stewt asked if I was going to kill the other one too, so I did so. Stab stab stab!
ENTRY 6: We searched around the farm and I found claw tracks and drag marks. Four more scarecrows were lurking nearby. Stewt and I bravely strode forth to check them out while Dale, Jethro, and Victor cowered in the back. Two of the scarecrows spring to life and attack us, but they were as bad at hitting things as Ox. Dale moves in with his scythe, since apparently undead scarecrows are less scary to him than non-undead ones. I kill one of the scarecrows, and then this giant panther comes out of nowhere and kills the other before running away. Victor screamed like a little girl! He then asked Jethro to hold them. Dale told me some funny jokes about dead goblins. When he was done, I noticed that the other two scarecrows had vanished! Very strange. Maybe that panther got them and dragged them off, although Victor didn't scream again.
ENTRY 7: We headed into the house. Stewt found another body with the sihedron rune carved in it. A note was pinned to his chest, addressed to Stewt of course. It said, "You, and you alone have brought his fearful harvest. They are dead because of you, and more shall join them soon." Someone has a serious vendetta against Stewt!
ENTRY 8: We headed to the barn. I mention to the others that I spotted some more creatures lurking nearby, but they told me not to kill them. They said I could cut off a head in the barn, so I listened. But then, more ghouls came out of the field and attacked us! This always happens whenever the others tell me not to kill things when we have the chance. Remember the zombies under the glassworks? I don't know why I listen to these people sometimes.
Anyway, Victor was hit and became paralyzed. That panther returns and kills one ghoul as another one gets entangled by some vines. I dropped one with my weapons and arrows began coming from nearby. Had Oeuvre returned? Stewt did that bright light thing that he does and dropped a ghoul. Jethro saved Victor from the ghoul that paralyzed him as Dale hacks down the entangled ghoul. The panther ran off again.
Stewt checks out Victor's paralyzed body, starting with his crotch of course. There clearly was a bite mark on his neck, but Stewt said we should be thorough and check for other bites. "Ghouls are very crafty," he said.
While this was going on, someone called out and demanded to know why we brought evil here. We told them that someone has a vendetta against Stewt, and that we came here to put down the undead. A half-elf chick emerged from the woods: she had green hair and face paint. The panther was with her, and I complimented her on her magnificent pussycat. Seeing her tear up those ghouls was a thing of beauty! Anyway, the half-elf chick said her name was Luna and that her companion was called Gwen.
ENTRY 9: We headed into the barn next. Luna called me her "little warrior" and asked me to lead the way. If only she had hair on her feet!
Dale checked the barn door for traps, and once he said it was clear, I kicked the door in. There were seven more ghouls there, one of which looked rather fresh. I ran in and attacked the ghoul between me and the fresh one, but I was unable to hit my foe. Did Ox come back?
Dale made a sphere of fire and burned the fresh ghoul. Victor cast a spell, and copies of him and Jethro appeared. Great, just what I needed--more Jethros! The ghouls attack, but none can hit me, not even the fresh ghoul. I'm just too quick! I strike with my weapons and bite the fresh ghoul. He tasted aweful, like Ox's feet must taste! Dale rolls his ball of fire over the fresh ghoul and another one that was attacking me. Jethro dropped one ghoul, as did Gwen. Stewt moved up next to me and tried to attack the leader, but was unable to hit him. I continued to dance around their attacks and bit the fresh ghoul again, in spite of his bad taste, and he went down. Dale drops the other ghoul attacking me and Gwen got the last one.
By now, the barn had caught on fire from Dale's sphere. Dale sent it off into the corn fields and it vanished when it got far away. Stewt called down water to put out the flames, but not in time to save the barn though.
Dale said he recognized the fresh ghoul and that his name was Rogors Craesby. He went on to say that Craesby was the caretaker of Foxglove Manor. Stewt said the name was familiar to him, but he couldn't place it. He found a key on the man with the symbol of a flower surrounded by thorns. I also found a trunk full of silver bars in the ruins of the barn, and that got Stewt all excited.
ENTRY 10: Ox and Oeuvre returned from their romp with two survivors. Together, we decided to head back to Sandpoint. On the way, I introduced Luna to Pretty Bird. She was sad that my companion had died, but I told her that Victor planned to raise her as an undead familiar. She said that was unnatural, but I pointed out that it was also cool.
ENTRY 11: Back in Sandpoint, Stewt talked to Father Zanthus and had him heal the two survivors. They had ghoul fever, but Father Zanthus healed them. Why didn't anyone tell me? I could have killed them.
We asked Father Zanthus about Foxglove Manor, and he said that it had been abandoned until recently when Aldern Foxglove came to the area. He was hiring people to repair it. Craesby had been the caretaker during the absence of the Foxglove family, checking on the place once a week or so, but he returned to work their full time when Aldern came. We return to the Rusty Dragon to rest for the night, and head out to Foxglove Manor in the morning. Stewt still can't remember where he heard the name Aldern Foxglove before. The man must not have been that important to Stewt, but Stewt was obviously important to him!
ENTRY 12: Just before we retired for the night, Sheriff Hemlock came to see us again. While we were at the farm, there had been another murder. This time the victim was a grocer named Olmur Danavakus. There was another note for Stewt of course. This one read: "You've let them all die! Their lives could have been spared, but your foolishness doomed them all! Just as you let my dog die on that goblin's blade, I let them die upon my own!" With the mention of the dog, Stewt finally remembered the man. Stewt said he saved him during the goblin raid, and that the man had thought he was the greatest at the time. I guess the dog's death hadn't had time to sink in yet.
Thank goodness that this party now has an extremely hot chic with green hair, green facepaint and some wonderful druidic tattoos. And don't forget about her beautiful pussycat.
DAY 13, ENTRY 1: In the morning, we noted that people are starting to leave the town of Sandpoint. Vin Vinder had been going around telling everyone that Stewt is the murderer, and that we had robbed his house. He doesn't seem to understand that I had to take that human bane dagger into protective custody. You can't just leave a thing like that laying around, it might fall into the hands of a psychopath or something. As a good deputy of Sandpoint, I couldn't let that happen. Unfortunately, even I was unable to hold onto such a weapon before I could turn it over to the proper authorities. I wonder what happened to it. Oh well, I have to go sharpen my new dagger before we head out to Foxglove Manor.
ENTRY 2: During the journey, it had become apparent to me that Oeuvre and Luna know each other and have had some dealings in the past. She probably even let the stupid, pointy-eared elf pet her pussycat. Oh well, at least he's better than Jethro, standing around all quiet and smirking!
ENTRY 3: We arrived at Foxglove Manor. As we approached, the trees became bent and twisted along the way. Even Stewt could tell that something unnatural had occurred here! Luna talked to a seagull, and he told her that the building had been corrupted and that he won't go near it. The building was in ruins, and perched on a cliff overlooking the ocean. It looked as if the building itself is about to take a suicidal plunge into the water below. There was an outbuilding out front that had been burned down, and we checked that out first. Some ravens were perched nearby, but they flew away as we approached. We found nothing interesting in the ruins except for a well. Stewt made a stone glow and tossed it into the well so that we could see inside, and Oeuvre spotted some holes in the wall. Luna called a bat to check it out. The bat said that there was a tunnel leading towards the house, and that it would make a "good bat home."
ENTRY 4: We headed into the manor, taking the left set of doors. Stewt always insists on going left. Dale said that was very sinister of him, and chuckled to himself. We entered some kind of music room which included a piano. As Dale checked it out, the piano exploded into sudden music. Ox began to dance like a big dumb fool, which come to think about it, is probably the only way Ox can dance, what with being a big dumb fool and all. When he stopped dancing, there was a sudden shriek and Oeuvre grabbed his ears in pain. He said he was dancing with a vibrantly beautiful woman who had appeared to have been strangled before rotting away. I didn't know Ox was into that kind of thing. He's cooler than I thought. Ox seemed tired from his dance and Ouevre was a little loopy from the shriek, so Stewt used one of his wands to fix them up.
ENTRY 5: The next room we checked out turned out to be washroom. There was a scratching noise coming from inside the tub. Stewt looked into and saw a diseased rat with tumors growing over its eyes. It began to shriek, but Luna calmed it down. She was afraid to grab it though, and when I approached to help, the rat started hissing at me, so I backed off. I don't know what that was about. I'm usually good with animals.
ENTRY 6: The next room was a sitting room. Ox, Oeuvre, and Stewt all said they saw footprints pacing in front of the fireplace. Since I hadn't seen them yet, I investigated and had a sudden flash of worry about what my husband was doing in the basement. I grabbed my child, Oeuvre, and tried to flee. Gwen pinned me down until I recovered my senses. That was really weird. Luna said she heard a woman's voice whisper "Lorey" from the fireplace.
ENTRY 7: The next room was a dining room. Stain glace windows obscured the ocean view, which Victor said was a rather odd choice. The windows depicted angry monsters rising out of a seven-sided box covered in runes. The monsters depicted were a treant, a roc, a lion-lady Victor identified as a sphinx, and a giant squid Victor also identified as a kraken. Victor said that the runes were necromancy-related, and that the monsters were being unwilling drawn into the box.
ENTRY 8: The next room was a large entrance hall. Nearest the dining room was a mummified monkey head with a bellpull dangling from its mouth and what appeared to be a stained rug. Upon closer inspection, it turned out not be a stain, but rather an image of downward spiraling staircase with each step littered with skulls and bones. The front end of the hall was decorated with trophies hanging from the wall: a boar, a bear, a firepelt cougar, and a stag. The centerpiece was a stuffed creature with the body of a lion, a scorpion's tail, bat wings, and deformed female human face. Victor identified this creature as a manticore. The others didn't see it, but the manticore's face came alive as her tail erupted in flames. It struck me, but I quickly rolled on the ground to extinguish the flames. I didn't wait to explain to the others what had happened and set about hacking up the manticore. I don't think anyone else believed me when I told themwhat had happened, but Stewt healed up my wounds anyway. He's good like that.
The sounds of a woman sobbing are coming from upstairs. We're heading up to check them out now, with Stewt in the lead.
ENTRY 9: The first room we came to on the second floor appeared to have once been a child's bedroom. Stewt got bleary-eyed for a moment. He said he had a vision of his parents fighting, his father armed with a knife and his mother with a torch. We found nothing else here.
ENTRY 10: The next room was a music room. There were more stained-glass windows obscuring the ocean view here. These ones depict a large scorpion, a man with a dozen bats hanging on him, a moth with skull-like patterned wings, a tangle of plants with bell-shaped flowers, and a young maiden sitting on well in a forest while a giant spider descends on her. Victor says these have something to do with necromancy too. This necromancy sounds like some really cool stuff. I wish I could learn it, but that would mean I wouldn't have time to practice killing things, and that takes priorities.
ENTRY 11: The next room appears to be a guest bedroom covered in a strange mold. Victor starts itching and scratching his face, and later said that it felt like his face had erupted in tumors and boils.
ENTRY 12: The next room was another washroom. Dale said that the floor here was very weak, so we moved on to the next room.
ENTRY 13: The next room was the master bedroom. It was torn apart as if someone had thrown a fit here. There was a painting here facing the wall. Stewt turned it over and it was a picture of a beautiful dark-haired woman. Ox claimed it was the same one whom he danced with earlier. Stewt then tried to attack Luna, but Gwen leapt to her defense and held him down until he could come to his senses again. We all hear a shrill voice shriek out, "What do you get up to in the damp below?"
ENTRY 14: The next room was a portrait gallery. On the right wall were three identified by a plaque as Vorel, Kasanda, and their daughter Lorey. On the left wall were five more identified as Traver, Cyralie, their son Aldern, and their daughters Sendeli and Zeeva. Ox's girlfriend is not shown here. The room grew cold and the images in the painting all changed: Kasanda and Lorey turn into tumor ridden corpses, Traver's throat is slit, Cyralie becomes charred, and Aldern's flesh rots. Sendi and Zeeva do not change, but Vorel's portrait erupts in a wave of fungus. Everything vanishes and the room returns to how we found it, but Luna now has some itchy red bumps on her arms. That can't be good.
ENTRY 15: The bedroom beyond the gallery had a moldy desk in it. Oeuvre retrieves a silver dagger from the desk and attempted to stab himself with it. Ox intervened and Oeuvre stabbed him instead! Oeuvre came to his senses again, and said he felt as if he had just killed the woman he loved. Meanwhile, Stewt patched Ox up. Ox said it was okay that Oeuvre stabbed him because he was haunted. I shouted that I was haunted too, but Ox glared at me. The big guy can't seem to take a joke.
ENTRY 16: We headed up to the attic next and found various repair supplies there and pots to catch rain coming through leaks in the roof. The house shifted, knocking everyone except Gwen and me on their rears. The big clumsy oafs!
ENTRY 17: We heard a shriek coming from one of the room, and the door was locked. Dale tried to pick it, but couldn't seem to manage. Oeuvre grew impatient broke the door down. A pale green woman jumped up from behind the crates in the room. She shouted, "Aldern! I can smell your fear! I'll be in your arms soon!" This caused most of us to cower in fear, but Stewt and couple others resisted and she attacked the dwarf. Stewt then decided it best to get out of the way, and she rushed right past the rest of us. We followed her to the basement, passing through a workshop of some sort to some ancient spiral stairs leading down. Stewt said that the manor appeared to have been built on top of them, and that these stairs were discovered later. He then starts to act as if he were attacked all of sudden, and bite and claw marks appear on his body. He heals his wounds, but refuses to let us check over his body. I remind him that ghouls are crafty, but that didn't persuade him either.
ENTRY 18: We continued to follow that ghostly woman to a large chamber where several ghouls let her past but blocked our pursuit. They ganged up on Stewt, Ox, and myself. Ox hit two of the ghouls and then Stewt unleashed his light and dropped both of them. Several of the others began running away as well, but a few stayed to fight. I missed with my weapons, but managed to bit one. Gwen bit one too, and Luna relays that she didn't like the taste very much. Strangely enough, I'm starting to get used to it. Ox then finished off the ghoul I bit before Oeuvre dropped one of the fleeing ghouls with his bow. I ran down another one as it fled, and Gwen dropped one as well. Oeuvre got the last of the ghouls running away. To summarize: Stewt and Oeuvre each got two, Gwen, Ox, and myself each got one. Ox is doing as well as me today? Something is terribly wrong here. It must be this place.
ENTRY 19: A dire bat came down the tunnel at us. Luna, Oeuvre, Ox, and myself all tried to calm it, but we couldn't affect it as it was undead! It attacked Luna, and Gwen circled around to flank. Luna attacked it with her sickle, but couldn't hit it so she fell back and started shooting her bow at it. Ox moved up, but he missed. Stewt did the shiny light thing again. I struck the undead bat with both my dogslicer and my handaxe. Oeuvre struck with one of his arrows, but missed his second shot. The undead bat bit Ox, who missed the bat again. Stewt fired an acid arrow at the bat, but he missed as well. I struck with both weapons again. Ox ws bit once more, and Gwen returned the favor. Stewt unleashed more of the shiny light, and I started missing the bat. Ox had been standing next to me for a while now, so I guess his bad luck finally overcame even my innate awesomeness. Ox got really angry then and cut the undead bat in two. He killed it! Let me repeat that, Ox killed the giant undead dire bat! Something is terribly wrong here!
ENTRY 20: Okay, so I checked over my notes, and I have known Ox for thirteen days now. Thirteen! That's an unlucky number, and since Ox is unlucky himself, that makes this his lucky day. Tomorrow he will start sucking again and all will be right in the universe once more.
ENTRY 21: The others couldn't follow a bull through the mud, but I was able to track down which way the ghost chick went. Luna got pale white and said she couldn’t go any further. The rest of us pressed onward and entered a big cave with water dripping down into a large pool at the bottom of a pit. Goblins started to swarm us as we entered, but the others were too blind and stupid to notice. I had to yell out "Goblins!" to let them know we were being attacked. As I moved to attack three of the goblins, I realized these weren't just goblins, but goblin ghouls! Two of them even bit me! Don't they know it's supposed to be the other way around? Worst of all, I became paralyzed and could only watch the others fight.
Stewt made the glowy light and three of the goblins turned to dust. Ox tried to hit one of the goblins with his big axe, but missed. Victor and Jethro ganged up on that goblin ghoul, but even their combined attacks aren't enough to down it. Oeuvre hit one of the goblin ghouls that bit me, and they swarmed him and Victor. Ox finished off the goblin Victor and Jethro softened up for him and moved to help them out. Jethro took down one of the goblins and Victor zapped another with his ray, but he was unable to finish it off himself. Oeuvre backed away and fires his bow at the goblins, but he missed. Ox then did something that I hate to admit, but it was really cool. He cut one of the goblins in two and knocked them into the pit. I can't wait until tomorrow and he goes back to sucking again. There was one goblin left, and both Victor and Jethro were unable to finish it, but Oeuvre finished him off.
The paralysis wore off then. Stewt wanted to check me over for bite marks. I told him no, but he said that he can't heal me unless he checked me over, so I had to let him. I was so embarrassed. He touched my "sling stones." Victor told Jethro that he was going to ask Stewt to check him over next. Jethro got nervous. At least, that's what Victor told us. Jethro, as always, just stood there smirking.
ENTRY 22: I was able to track the ghost chick to a stone door to the north and Ox barged through. We entered a cavern with a rickety table with a painting laying at its feet, a large chair with some ugly dude sitting in it, the ghost chick laying at his feet, plates of rotten meat on a second table, and a large growth of mold in the shape of a humanoid with a smashed puzzle box at its feat.
The ugly guy was happy to see Stewt and said he wanted to taste his heart while it was still warm. Stewt recognized him as Aldern! Victor didn't wait around for him to attack made multiple images of him and Jethro. Oeuvre quicky fired his bow and shot him twice before the Aldern could even stand up.
Aldern got up out of his chair and dropped to his knees. He sobbed and begged for us to save him. He was afraid of someone called the Hurter and said that he was forced into an arrangement with something called the Brothers of the Seven. I showed him the sihedron ruin and asked if he recognized it. He said he didn't and got to his feet and bowed. He then said that he wondered how are deaths would affect our friends and shape the world. He began to lick blood of his war razor. This guy was crazy, but at least he had style.
Aldern then attacked Ox. More goblin ghouls showed up to join the fight. Some of them swarmed to attack Oeuvre, but Victor summoned an owlbear zombie to intercept the rest of them. The zombie quickly tore one of the goblin ghouls apart. Jethro attacked Aldern but missed. Oeuvre shot one of the goblin ghouls, but missed with his second shot. Stewt attempted to cast a spell on Aldern, but it had no effect on him. Ox got mad and tried to attack Aldern as well, but he missed. I moved up next to him to attack Aldern as well, and I missed with my handaxe, my dogslicer, and with my bite. Stupid Ox and his bad luck curse! Dale began to sing an inspiring song.
The owlbear zombie took out other goblin ghoul. Victor moved up next to Aldern as well and hit him with his cold touch. Oeuvre got bit by one the goblin ghouls and was paralyzed. Aldern and Ox exchanged blows and Stewt made more of the glowy light that reduced the last of the goblin ghouls to dust. Dale drew a wand and blasted Aldern with a magical bolt. I circled around Aldern, moving away from Ox and his bad luck. It helped as I struck with my dogslicer and then bit him.
With the goblin ghouls dispatched, the owlbear zombie moved to help us with Aldern and Jethro hit him. Victor followed up by zapping Aldern with a ray. Aldern turned his attention on Victor, and took out both of Victor's images before slashing him with his clawed had. Ox missed again, but Stewt continued to make the glowy light. Dale struck Aldern with another arcane bolt. I flanked Aldern with Ox and cut him again with my dogslicer.
The owlbear zombie struck Aldern over my head, showing me in blood and gore. It was so refreshing! Victor tried to cast a spell, but it fizzled. Jethro missed again. Ouevre shook off the paralysis and shot Aldern with his bow. Aldern turned his attention on me and hit me with his war razor. Ox then struck Aldern with his axe and took him down. Stupid thirteenth day making Ox look good!
The ghost chick stood up and thanked us for releasing her spirit. She withered and died then. Victor searched through Aldern's possessions and identified his war razor, mask, and two rings as being magical. He was able to tell that one of the rings protected the wearer from harm, but was unable to tell what the other ring or mask did. He also found some personal belonging of Stewt, including an envelope the contained a braid cut from his beard. Victor also found a note on Aldern and some keys as well. The note reads:
"Aldern
"You have served us quite well. The delivery you harvested from the caverns far exceeds what I had hoped for. You may consider your debt to the Brothers paid in full. Yet I still have need of you, and when you awaken from your death, you should find your mind clear and able to understand this task more than in the state you lie in as I write this.
"You shall remember the workings of the Sihedron ritual, I trust. You seemed quiet lucid at the time, but if you find after your rebirth that you have forgotten, return to your townhouse in Magnimar. My agents shall contact you there soon--no need for you to bother the Brothers further. I will provide the list of proper victims for the Sihedron ritual in two days' time. Commit tha list to memory and then destroy it before you begin your work. The ones I have selected must be marked before they die, otherwise they do my master no good and the greed in their souls will go to waste.
"If others get in your way, though, you may do with them as you please. Eat them, savage them, or turn them into pawns--it matters not to me.
"Your Mistress, Wanton of Nature's Pagan Forms."
The portrait lying next to the table was of the ghost chick. Ox searched the fungus and found a wand. Victor said that the wand could be used to open doors, and from the hauntings we experienced earlier, he thought that Kasanda Foxglove used the wand to uncover Vorel's secret research, which Victor also said that from the puzzle box, looked like we was trying to turn himself into a lich. Stewt said the place still held an evil presence, even though Aldern had been defeated.
ENTRY 23: We searched the rest of the caverns and found the remains of a human. Dale identified him as the notoroious bandit Shaz "Reshiv" Bilger, who was suspected of organizing the robbery of nearly two dozen merchant convoys along the Lost Coast Road over the past decade. He also said that there is a reward in Magnimar for proof of his demise. We found several items on him including a pearl ring, a magic adamantine longsword, a hat that can be used to disguise oneself, and some gold. Ox and I carried the body out with us.
ENTRY 24: We decided to burn the house down. Dumb Ox said that we didn't have anybody who could make fireballs. I took out my flint and steel and tried to ignite the place, but that didn't seem to work. Stewt said that the evil was too strong for us to deal with at this time, and that we would have to return when we were stronger.
ENTRY 25: We returned to Sandpoint and inform Sheriff Hemlock that we had taken care of the murderer. He paid us our reward. We are heroes again, and nobody believes Vin Vinder anymore when he tells people we robbed his house. We went to see the sage Brodert Quink again, and he identified Aldern's other ring and his mask for us. The ring aids one's ability to jump, and the mask aids in sneaking and can be used to empower one's attack with rage. We divide up the loot we have acquired: I took the ring of jumping and the mask; Dale took the hat of disguise and the adamantine longsword; Victor took the wand; and Ox took the ring of protection. We sold the rest and went shopping then. I bought a ring of protection, Ox bought a magical haversack and a magical cloak, Oeuvre got a magic quiver, and Dale got his armor enchanted. We rest up for the night. Tomorrow, we head to Magnimar.
DAY 14, ENTRY 1: Blessed be the gods that Day 13 is over. I was really getting tired of Ox actually being competent for a change. Now that the unlucky day is over, Ox will go back to his usually incompetent self. I hope.
ENTRY 2: We arrived at Magnimar. Luna got sick at the sight of the city and head to wait outside. We first headed to speak with the authorities about the reward. Justice Ironbriar was busy, so we spoke to a constable. Ox blurted out that we found him already dead. Dumb Ox! We probably would have gotten more if we told them we killed him ourselves. As it was, he rewarded as with a line of credit at a local alchemist and we stocked up on an assortment of potions. I purchased four potions that will temporarily imbue my teeth with magic. How cool is that! I asked the alchemist if he had anything that could fix Ox, and he said he did, but the big dumb guy wouldn't spring for it. Maybe we should have pitched in to help since we're the ones who have to put up with him.
ENTRY 3: Dale heard stories from the locals of a string of killings in Magnimar eerily similar to the ones Aldern was committing in Sandpoint. The victims included merchants, diplomats, dirty guardsmen, and money lenders.
ENTRY 4: We headed to Aldern's townhouse next. There were wyvern fountains outside, and the building appeared to have been abandoned for several months from the state of the courtyard. Dale put on his new hat and disguised himself as a distant Foxglove noble. Ox found some muddy footprints on the floor as we entered. They appeared to be human. As we search through the lower level of the manor, it was clear the place had been ransacked. I heard some footsteps upstairs of at least two different people.
ENTRY 5: We went to investigate and encounter: Aldern and Iesha! They were alive? Dale tried to bluff that he was a cousin, but Aldern wouldn't have any of it and attacked. They turned into faceless scaly creatures with overly long arms. "Aldern" hit Dale with his longsword, but "Iesha" missed Ox.
Oeuvre shot "Aldern" with his bow. I then sliced him (I'm assuming that it was a him, and "Iesha" a her) with my dog slicer. Dale ducked under "Aldern's" longsword as he moved to flank with me. He hit him with his new magic longsword. Victor attempted to splash him with acid, but missed. Stewt moved in to strike "Aldern" with his hammer, but his weapon wasn't effective against these faceless creatures. Ox hit "Iesha" with his axe. Damn it, Ox is supposed to suck again today! Well, these are clearly minions, and Ox was never too bad against them. It's their bosses he could never hit. "Iesha" hit him back with her longsword, and her arms twisted in a weird way that tricked dumb Ox and slipped past his defenses.
Oeuvre finished off "Aldern" with his bow. I turned my attention to "Iesha" and bit her. She tasted even worst than the ghouls! Why can't we ever fight something tasty like goblins anymore? Dale moved to flank with Ox, but missed "Iesha" with his longsword. Victor and Stewt both struck her with acid. Ox missed (there's the Ox I know and hate), and "Iesha" missed him in return. Oeuvre stuck once more with his bow, and then I hit with both my handaxe and my dog slicer, before dropping it with a bite.
Stewt was unable to identify the creature, but did say that it was an aberration.
ENTRY 6: We searched the second floor and found it thoroughly searched. The third floor was a single large bedroom that had also been ransacked. I found a pair of lion heads flanking a fireplace. Dale noticed that they matched the image on the key we took of Aldern and investigate. He placed the key into one of the mouths and the other opened to reveal a secret niche. Inside, we found a bag of platinum coins, legal papers, and a deed to the haunted manor. Strangely, the deed to the manor said that it was one-third financed by the Brothers of the Seven, and that ownership of the manor and the lands around and below it would transfer to them after a period of 100 years after construction, which will happen 20 years from now. We also found evidence that Aldern was paying "B.7" a total of 200 gold per week for "Iesha's Trip to Absolom." We assumed that "B.7" is the Brother of the Seven. The payments were dropped off every Oathday at midnight at a place called "The Seven's Sawmill."
Hey...I didn't enter the city because of a problem I was experiencing. My problem was of the female kind and I ran out of Birch wood absorption plugs. Guys just don't understand...
Hey...I didn't enter the city because of a problem I was experiencing. My problem was of the female kind and I ran out of Birch wood absorption plugs. Guys just don't understand...
Does Luna share cycles with Gwen?
Wow...that is a really good question. Yes, we do share the same cycle. Unfortunately, unlike myself, Gwen doesn't get moody...she simply slices beautifully, symmetric lines across those that ask such questions.
ENTRY 7: We stopped at a tavern along the way, and Ox drank himself face-first onto the table. Victor retired to a private room with Jethro to do some "research." The rest of us are heading out to the Seven's Sawmill.
ENTRY 8: Dale took the guise of a middle-aged human female to scout the place out under the guise of looking for business. A few minutes later, he came running out chased by three men, then disappeared into the crowd.
ENTRY 9: We met up with Dale back at the tavern, and he filled us in with what happened at the sawmill. He said the place was suspiciously empty with lots of running machinery. He eventually found four workers he directed them to the boss. He saw that one had bared a weapon and the others were taking up attack positions, so he fled and dumped grease behind him. Two of them fell down and another slipped but managed not to fall in his face. The fourth pursued, trying to hit with a war razor and hands that crackled with black magic. Dale fought back with his magical longsword as he continued to flee. He eventually dropped the man, and had time to find out that the man's facemask was magical. When he removed it, the man's disguise spell expired revealing a red jester outfit. The others were closing on him so he shifted his guise to an obese dwarf once he was out of sight and melding into the crowd. Victor came out for a breather from his "work" with Jethro. He experimented with the mask and said that it enhanced one's perception of fear, but filled his head with thoughts of murder. I don't understand that last part: isn't everyone's head filled with thoughts of murder? Maybe it's just me. Oeuvre wanted to wait to the date Aldern was supposed to make his next payment, but I said we just go now and kill them. Dale agreed with me! He wanted to get them before they could get reinforcements. We decided to rest for the night and go first thing in the morning.
DAY 15, ENTRY 1: We returned the next day. Ox was hung-over and even more useless than he normally is and Victor was sleeping in after pulling an all-nighter with Jethro. Dale resumed his guise of the middle-aged woman and Oeuvre, Stewt, and myself accompanied him. We head out to the sawmill and after going to the second level, we find seven workers, and three of them started casting shielding spells according to Dale. Those three moved up to attack as the other four hung back and began casting the same spell.
Dale used a scroll of put two of the men to sleep as Stewt cast a protective spell of us own and moved in to attack. I pounced on one and struck with my dogslicer before biting into its sweet, tender flesh. It tasted so good, not like those foul-tasting ghouls and faceless things. Actually, these guys tasted like chicken, so I guess you could say they were fowl-tasting! Ha, I should tell that one to Dale.
One of the workers hit Stewt with his war razor, but the rest all failed to hit their targets or hung back. Stewt tried to finish off the one I wounded and steal my kill, but he missed. Dale began to circle around their flank and struck with his longsword. I finish off the one I wounded earlier with my human-killing dagger and bit another chunk of flesh out of him in victory. The opportunistic Oeuvre shot the one Dale wounded, stealing his kill. Well, better the elf steal his kills than mine at least. Dale struck another from behind with his magic longsword, and Stewt finished him off with his warhammer. That's two kills Dale had stolen from him now, but he doesn't seem to mind as much. He's kind of laid back and nice like that. I strike one with both my weapons, even my dagger, and then bit him and he was still standing. Oeuvre tries to steal my kill then, but he missed, but then Dale stole my kill! Dale!
Stewt struck the last remaining worker with his warhammer, and then I finished him off with my dogslicer and the bit him victory. Maybe I stole his kill, but that was all Dale's fault. Had he not taken mine, I could have finished off that one instead of attacking the other one. But then, with Ouevre and Stewt taking his kills, maybe he was just desperate for one. I'll tell you what, I'll forgive him if he tells more of those funny dead goblin jokes like: "A goblin walks into a bar with an axe in his head and dies." That's a good one. It's funny because the goblin dies.
By the way, Dale and I finished off the two sleeping workers. I then carve up chunks of meat from the three I killed to save for later.
ENTRY 2: We head up more stairs to the third level. Dale eyes the machinery cautiously and says he's afraid someone will lose a limb here. That would be cool, I mean, it would be if it wasn't me. Like Oeuvre! How funny would that be if he lost a limb. Or an ear! Maybe I could find it and start a necklace like Brathazmus. Then Oeuvre can see his missing ear everytime he looks at it. That would be so cool!
Oh yeah, there four more workers here. Dale tried to shoot one, but missed. Stewt moved in and prepared to strike one as he came in range. Oeuvre moves up into the doorway and shoots one of the workers with his bow. Two of them moved to attack, and Stewt drops the one Oeuvre wounded and drops the man. He just stole a kill from the master kill stealer! Stewt is the dwarf! I take out another with my dog slicer and dagger. Dale draws his sword and moves in and Stewt strikes one with his warhammer, and Oeuvre finishes him off and steals his kill back (man, this is getting hard to keep straight! Everyone is stealing kills today. Even me!). The last one tried to fleed, and I chased after him. Stewt got there first and strikes again with his warhammer. That dwarf is on fire without Ox's bad mojo around! The man tried to push Stewt into the machinery, but I stabbed him with my fancy dagger and kill him. That dagger is awesome! I'm so glad I didn't steal it.
We searched the room, and Oeuvre and Dale found three bags of gold, three potions, some jewelry, and three diamonds. Dale identified the potions as being able to toughen one's skin, and he, Oeuvre, and I all took one.
Oh, and in case you were wonder, yes, I collected bits of meat from the two workers that I killed for the stew pot.
ENTRY 3: We had to go up even more stairs and found a workshop with an office. Dale said that he heard voices coming from the office. Dale alters his appearance to that of a big dumb half-orc that looked too much like Ox for my taste. He said although there was no magic in the workshop, that he did detect some from inside the office. Before we could waste even more time, I kick the door down.
There were two more workers in there and an elf. Dale said that the elf was Justice Ironbriar, and he put on a mask and drew his war razor. Those things seem to be popular here. Oeuvre quickly shot the one worker twice and dropped him. The other worker and Ironbriar both tried to attack me, but I'm too quick for them to hit. Stewt moved up to my side and hit the worker. Dale casts a spell and Ironbriar drops to the ground laughing. I finish off the cultist with my fancy dagger, but I missed Justice Giggles with my dog slicer. Oeuvre shot the elf twice, but Dale was unable to strike him with his longsword. Stewt bashed the man in the head with his warhammer and finished him off.
As I collected more meat from the one cultists for the stew pot, the others searched Ironbriar and the room. Dale said that the man's mask, wand, and war razor were all magic. Oeuvre found a footlocker containing some items: several books, sea charts, etchings of vast rock formations and dolmens accompanied by maps, several pamphlets discussing a "forgotten" school of magic known as The Alcymyc, and a fine painting depicting a city carved from a vast frozen waterfall with towering ice cathedrals and domes. One of the books was a spellbook for Victor. The second book was an old and beautifully filigreed (according to Dale) tome containing numerous handrawn illustrations and titled The Syrpents Tane: Fiary Tales o fhte Eldest. Another book was Ironbriar's leger and Journal, but everything here was in a cipher. Dale said he could crack it, but that he would need time to do so.
ENTRY 4: We returned to the tavern and I made Sawmill Seven Stew, although truth be told, it should technically be Sawmill Six Stew, but Seven sounded better. The others sold off our loot. We had to find a special buyer for the masks and we're meeting them at the dark later tonight to make the deal.
ENTRY 5: We headed to the docks. Ox, who had recovered from his hangover, noted that one of the drunk sailors wasn't really drunk. If there's one thing the big guy knows, it's about being drunk. Also, I spotted a guy on the roof. Oeuvre watched over us from a distance. Just what we need: that elf pointing his bow in our direction. The guys we met with were quite shady, literally. They seemed to come and go from the shadows. Their leader asked Victor what was up with Jethro, and Victor told him not to make Jethro angry. I don't think we've ever seen Jethro angry. He always has a calm, collective smirk on his face. We asked to see the gold, and they brought out four bags of coins. I think Stewt wet himself. We completed our deal and they vanished back into the shadows. We returned to the tavern. Ox was worried about getting jump, but I saw bring it! With my share of the loot, I purchased a haversack to help carry stuff with. I saved the rest for now as I want to upgrade the enchantment on my weapons. I'll probably do the dog slicer first--that weapon seems to be more reliable than the handaxe for some reason, even though Victor assures me that they have the same level of magical enhancement.
DAY 16, ENTRY 1: I think I'm in love! While Victor and Dale spent all day deciphering the script, I met a halfling at a local brothel. Her name was Rubi, and she gave me a lock of her hair. I showed it to the others. Ox noted that it smelled like feet, and I told him that was because it was her foot-hair. He seemed to get even greener than usual then for some reason.
DAY 17, ENTRY 1: Not much to say here. I went to see Rubi again while Victor and Dale continued to work on the journal. They still haven't figured it out yet.
DAY 18, ENTRY 1: Victor and Dale finally cracked the journal. It mentions someone called "Wanton of Nature's Pagan Forms," whom Aldren's journal mentioned as well. Ironbriar's journal implicates her as the mastermind behind the murders. It also said that she stole his heart, showed him new ways of killing things, and that he visited her at the Shadow Clock.
ENTRY 2: We went to see the constable, who seemed quite busy now that we killed Ironbriar. Dale asked to see him alone in his office, and showed him the journal which cleared us of any murder chargers for killing him. Stewt meanwhile found out where the Shadow Clock is located. They said the locals avoided the clocktower because it was all rundown. They refer to it as the "Terrible Stairs." The city has ordered the place closed due to several accidental deaths there. It makes me sad to think of all those people dying accidentally when someone, namely me, could have killed them instead. Stewt also learned that there have been stories revolving around the clocktower: some claim to have seen a serpentine shape slithering near the roof, and others say that have seen a lurking shadowy hulk near the base. Everyone seems to expect the place to collapse one day, and several taverns have betting pools on when, how much damage it will cause, and how many will die when it does so.
ENTRY 3: Ox knocked down the door. We searched the base, and finding nothing, start to head up the stairs. Then, something big and ugly came out of the rubble. No, it wasn't Ox, it was bigger and even uglier than him if you can believe it. The creature looked like a giant scarecrow and was armed with a massive scythe. Victor said the creature was called a golem.
Victor was first to ask, and quickly dropped a puddle of grease in the golem's path. Ox fired his bow at the golem, but missed as it slipped and fell on its backside. Oeuvre and I both shot the creature with our weapons, and I jumped down over the railing to protect Victor. Stewt cast a spell that made us all feel happy, and Victor summoned an owlbear skeleton to attack the creature. Ox was impressed by my acrobatics and tried to imitate me, but the big dumb guy just fell on his face! The golem got to its feet as Oeuvre continued to shoot it with his bow. I move into the grease to engage the golem in melee as Stewt attempted but failed to strike with his warhammer.
Victor's owlbear was the first to hit in melee. Victor himself splashed some acid on the golem, but it didn't seem to have any effect. Ox got up and somehow managed to strike with his axe. He really hurt the golem! The golem attempts to strike Ox back but missed. Oeuvre continued to strike with his bow, and I hit with both my dog slicer and managed to bite it as well. Stewt missed again. Naturally, he was standing next to Ox at the time.
The owlbear struck twice more, but Ox was unable to hit the golem again. The golem attempts to strike Ox again, continues to be ineffective with its attacks. I wonder if Ox's bad luck works on the golem as well? That could be quite useful if we could channel this at our enemies. Anyway, Oeuvre struck with two more arrows to finish off the golems. I notice something shiny behind the golem and found a bunch of more coins. Victor identified both the golem's scythe and its cloak as magical.
ENTRY 3: Ox is the greatest! We were heading up the rickety stairs with about 10 feet between us when we spotted some movement near the bells above. A shadowy humanoid figure was cutting the bell ropes! Victor blinded the guy, but it was too late. The bell fell, with the cutter following after him. I was so mesmerized by the falling guy that I didn't notice the bell was falling right towards me until too late. It knocked my off the stairs, but big, strong, handsome Ox jumped to grab me, even though it meant he'd get struck as well. I'll have to buy him an ale or ten when we get back. The bell continued down and struck Oeuvre as well, but unfortunately didn't knock the elf off the stairs.
It has come to my attention though, that someone has been peeing in Ox's ale jugs lately. If I ever catch the guy responsible, I'll be sure to kill him for my friend Ox. I wonder if Jethro is behind it. That could be why he's always smirking! I'll have to ask Pretty Bird to keep an eye on him when I'm sleeping.
The stairs were damaged when the bell fell, cutting Ox and myself off from the others. Dale gave Stewt a potion of levitation, and he's ferrying the others one-by-one towards us. I always suspected the dwarf was a bit of a ferry! Ha! That's another good one for Dale.
ENTRY 4: After he finished, ferrying the others up the stairs, Stewt made the glowy light to heal Oeuvre, brave, handsome Ox, and myself from the damage we sustained from the falling bell. We then made our way to the top of the stairs, and found three more of those faceless things we encountered back at Foxglove manor. Oeuvre shot one, and I quickly moved to intercept one that was going to attack Ox. Stewt moved in and struck with his warhammer, and Ox engaged the last of the three faceless things and struck with his mighty axe. The faceless things struck back, and Ox was hit by one.
Between the three of us and the bells, Victor and Dale held their attacks not wanting to hit us by mistake. Oeuvre, however, didn't seem to care and continued to shoot, but he missed both friend and foe. I struck with my trusty dog slicer, and both Stewt and Ox hit with hammer and axe respectively. The faceless things fought back, and the one tricked Ox with their twisty arms and managed to strike him in a vital organ!
Oeuvre struck the one engaged with Stewed twice. I struck again, this time with both my dog slicer and my handaxe. Stewt and Ox both missed. Stewt took a hit, but he was crafty enough not to be faked out by the faceless things' twisty arms. Ox was not so fortunate, and neither was I.
Oeuvre continued his barrage, and I struck with my dog slicer. Stewt finished off one with his warhammer and moved to lend a hand to Ox. Mighty Ox struck once more with his greataxe, but still the creature wouldn't fall. The faceless thing turned his attention to Stewt, but the dwarf still wasn't faked out by their tricky attacks. I wasn't so fortunate.
The pointy-eared jerk Oeuvre started shooting at either the faceless thing I was fighting or myself, but he missed both of us. I struck again with both my dog slicer and my handaxe. Stewt missed with his warhmmer, but mighty Ox landed a powerful blow with his greataxe and bravely moved to help me. The faceless thing turned his attention to Ox and faked him out again with those tricky arms of theirs. I was going to kill it for Ox, but Pointy-Ears beet me to the punch and finished it off. Stewt then healed us all up again. We are about to head up more steps, these ones curving around outside the clocktower. I wonder what we will find there.
Hello. Since my dear friend Koz seems to have wandered off for the moment, I suppose that I will try to fill in for him. This is Dale, picking up recording duties for the interim.
Now, then... where were we?
The staircase headed outside to twist up the exterior of the tower to its top. Sadly, the masons who put together this crime against architecture seem to have an aversion to safety features such as railings. Before we placed ourselves in jeopardy on that deathtrap, Luna wisely had Gwen test the stairs for ambushes first. When the cat came back intact, we assumed that getting at least to the top of the stairs might be safe. Victor and Jethro continued their intense consultations together at the landing, while Koz had wandered off. Perhaps Tiny Terror saw something at the bottom of the tower that looked particualrly edible, like toddlers.
In any case, Ox, Stewt, Ouvere, Luna, and I continued up to the top of the tower, with Gwen slinking ahead to creep into an ambushing position. I like that cat.
At the top of the flight of stairs, the path winds back inside to the room at the top of the tower. A lovely angelic statue was in the center of the room, but it had been ruined and defaced. The most likely culprit was the large, serpentine lamia wielding a wicked spear that charged Ox as he bravely wandered into the space.
Ox fought toe-to-toe with the creature, while Luna and I slipped past into the room to move into flanking positions. Ouvere stepped into the doorway and fired a shot at the monster, while Stewt attempted to dispel the large numbers of protective spells that were very obviously floating around her form. Stewt managed to strip her of a large portion of her defenses, whcih angered her enough that she savagely mauled Ox. The poor thing moved off and hid behind Luna, licking his wounds. (Well, not literally - although I suspect that Koz would have been happy enough to volunteer for that duty had he been there.) Stewt moved forward to engage the beast, lest it charge either Luna or Ouvere. Meanwhile, Gwen leapt on the thing from atop the angel statue while I invisibly snuck into position to find a juicy place to stab. Luna used a spell to cause a portion of the wall to explode outward at the beast, doing some more damage.
Ouvere continued to pepper the lamia with arrows, getting hits on a fairly regular basis. Luna transformed into a bear to get a few swipes on the thing as well. After a short amount of time getting his wounds healed, Ox rejoined the fray. After getting one solid shot on the creature, I tumbled out of combat to make room for my dear friend Ox to get close enough to do what he does best. Sensing that the tide of battle was turning against her, the lamia attempted to fly away, utilizing one of the few spells she still had remaining after Stewt wreaked havoc on her defenses. As she rose out of the melee, Gwen, Ox and Stewt all hit her fleeing form, but it was Stewt's hammer which proved to be the felling blow. She dropped on top of him as the magic fled from her ruined corpse.
Stewt dragged himself out from beneath the monster, where he was certainly checking for bite marks. (See! It's like Koz never left!) We searched the nest the lamia left, and found a list of murder targets, about half of which had been kille daround Magnimar and Sandpoint. When I saw the Lord Mayer's name on the list, I insisted that we go and tell him personally. Ox wanted to go see the constable, but luckily everyone else recognized that I had the right idea.
When we got to the Lord Mayor, I informed him of the plot against him, and the exacting details of his schedule that demonstrated how carefully he had been watched. After we revived him from his fainting spell, he was so happy that he threw a bnquet on our honor, complete with Huge! Cash! Prizes! Maybe this might help to show why everyone should listen to the bard more often.
We went on a spending spree, and when I found an item that I could use to help my friends be more effective in combat, Ox was happy to donate the last small amount to make sure that I could afford to get it. I can't blame him, since that magic amulet REALLY will be used to help him far more than it will help me. I'm just giving that way.
Anyways, after we had time to get re-equipped, the Lord Mayor told us about an outpost of rangers that hasn't reported in like they should. Turns out that Ouvere belongs to this group, The Black Bows, and his charming friend is accompanying us on the trip out to see what's wrong. She doesn't have any illusion magic covering her appearance, so I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. Luna and I have determined what seems to be the best route to get to this outpost, and we are looking forward to a swift and safe journey.
DAY 18, ENTRY 1: Okay, I think I need to clarify a few things here. I woke up today with a splitting headache and don't remember a thing after that bell hit me in the head. It appears that I continued to take notes in this journal for a while, and then Dale took over when I was no longer able to.
I don't trust what I wrote in here however. I mean, it says here that Ox saved me?!? That can't be right. If that weren't enough to doubt my sanity at when I was writing this, I go on to imply that Jethro was peeing in Ox's ale. I know that can't be true for one simple reason: Jethro can't do that! Stewt assures me that he lacks the proper equipment. If anyone would know, Stewt would. He's checked! Finally, it says I wondered off when there was still killing to be done. That doesn't sound like me at all.
Hey, Luna's back, and she's brought her magnificent pussy with her. I really love that cat. I need to get my own pet. Pretty Bird is a fine bird, but she's not very good at killing things. I need to get me a wolf or hyena. Yeah, a hyena would be cool!
Oh, and Dale, I resent that implication that I would eat babies. My pappy always told me to only eat what I kill (or was that only kill what I eat? I can never remember what he said. I'd ask him, but he's dead now. And delicious). Anyway, killing babies is no fun. They don't fight back at all!
Before we head out, I enchant my dog slicer so that I can coat its blade with acid at will. I also pick up a belt that makes me even faster, and a vest to make me more resistant to magic.
ENTRY 2: Okay, the others tell me that one of Magnimar's holdings near Hook Mountain, Fort Rannick, has been out of contact for sometime. The lord-mayor wants us to go check it out. It turns that this is the hangout for Ouerve's ranger buddies, the Orders of the Black Arrows. We decide to take a barge to nearby Turtleback Ferry as that's the quickest way. We don't want to end up fighting an undead horde when we get there. This makes sense to me since fresh meet tastes way better. Dale and I negotiated to work for our passage, with myself offering up my cooking services and he "entertaining" the crew. The others had to pay their own way though.
Even by river barge, it will still take a week to get there. The next few days will probably be pretty boring, so you may want to skip ahead.
DAY 25, ENT RY 1: We arrived at Turtleback Ferry. Dale wanted to talk to some locals before we headed off into the woods. Naturally, Ox and Stewt head straight for the tavern, Bottom's Up, and the rest of tagged along while Luna and Dale went to talk to the mayor. Ox slipped Victor some dwarven spirits, and he fell on his face. Stewt then took him to the back to sleep it off, and Jethro followed to watch. Stewt returned a few minutes later smirking like Jethro.
Luna and Dale came back after meeting with Mayor Shreed. They learned that the rangers usually come to town for supplies, but haven't come by for several weeks now. He sent a patrol to investigate, but they never returned.
Wait, Oeuvre just noticed something on someone's neck. He bumped into the guy as he was going to the bar to get another round of drinks, and was able to get a good look at his neck tattoo-it's the Sihedron Rune! Dale is going to follow him to his home, and I'm going as backup. I'll have more on this later.
ENTRY 2: Dale disguised himself as a young elf boy and peeked in one of the windows and saw nothing unusual. He then knocked on the door and said he was selling cookings for the junior ranger scouts, but the cultist just slammed the door in his face. While I was waiting, I found and killed a squirrel for dinner later. I wanted to kill the cultist too, but Dale was too chicken and talked me out of it somehow.
ENTRY 3: We return to Bottom's Up, and the others notice had noticed that a lot of townfolk were wearing high collars while we were gone. Luna went to talk to Mayor Shreed again, this time with Ouevre, but he thought they were nuts. Dale did a comedy routine to get the attention of some of the cultists, and one was fascinated by his performance. It was pretty good, but I think he could have used more dead goblin jokes.
Dale noted during his perforamce that the tattoos held divination magic. He talked to the guy he fascinated after the show. Dale compliments on his tattoo, and the man gets scarred an runs off. Dale turned invisible to follow him.
ENTRY 4: Dale returned from his outing. He slipped in the house and confronted the man while still invisible. He claimed to be a cultist from Magnimar. The man claimed ignorance, and confessed that he got that tattoo at a gambling den called Paradise. Dale then left without further comment, leaving the man terrified. He is so cool!
We learn at the bar the Paradise was on a floating barge, but it recently sunk. This seemed to confuse Ox because he needed clarification that the barge was on Claybottom Lake, as opposed to the Ashwood. Stupid half-orc. Luna heads out to investigate the wreckage as a fish. Ox went into the kitchen and chatted up a cook with a Sihedron Rune tattoo. The cook was more talkative, and said it was a mark for special membership privileges at the Paradise. The owner, he said, was a hot chick named Lucrecia, but she and a few others died when the place sank. Ox then told the guy that it was the mark of a gay god, and got kicked out of the kitchen. Luna returned from her outing and reported that she didn't find much there, and only found one body, and that it was male. She also mentions seeing a giant snapping turtle while she was down there. Dale theorizes that the place was a front to mark greedy targets for sacrifice, and Luna thinks they intentionally sank the place once that phase of their plan was complete. We head to the Turtle's Parlor inn to retire for the night and head out to Fort Rannick the next morning.
DAY 26, ENTRY 1: We had a good meal before heading out. Well, all of us except for Ox. He said his tasted funny. I try to explain that it's not a good idea to insult the people who prepare your food, but it went over his head like reading.
ENTRY 2: We crossed a bridge into the Kreegwood. I heard the sound of a wounded animal, and it turned out to be a bear stuck in a trap. I tried to calm it, but it only got more agitated when I approached. Luna had better luck, and it tried to warn her of a pack of hunting dogs that were coming. Together, we try to open the trap, but we weren't strong enough to get it open before an ogre with a deformed hand arrived with three dogs. The ogre warns us to stay out of his way. Dale takes a shot at the ogre, but misses, and Stewt casts a spell on himself. The dogs move to attack Stewt and myself, but they all miss. The ogre attempts to circle around the trap and attack Luna, but Ox intercepts him. Oeuvre shot one of the dogs with two arrows and killed it. Personally, I hate to kill dogs--they're good animals, not like squirrels--but these one chose to ally with an ogre, and now must face the consequences. I hit one with my handaxe, and Gwen just mauled another of the dogs. Luna shoots the ogre with her bow, and the ogre strikes Ox back with his spear. Stewt finishes off the last of the dogs. Dale fired off another shot at the ogre, but missed.
Ox managed to somehow strike the ogre with his greataxe (he seems to be getting almost competent this days--did he somehow break his curse). Oeuvre, on the other hand, misses with his bow. Ox hit and Oeuvre missed? Something is definitely screwy here. Did Ox somehow manage to steal Oeuvre's skill?
Back to the fight. Gwen and I both moved into position to attack as Luna struck with another arrow. The ogre impales Ox once more. Dale draws his sword and moves to flank with Ox. Stewt moves up to join the melee. Ox hits the ogre for a second time! Oeuvre then struck twice with his bow. I moved to flank with Dale and strike with my acid-enhanced dogslicer and my handaxe, and dropped the giant.
Ox then opened the bear trap single handily. Dale said the ogre's belt and his spear were magic, and collected them. I took the opportunity to carve out some choice cuts of meat from the ogre. The bear wants to lead Luna somewhere, so we're going to follow him.
ENTRY 3: The bear led us to a sickly looking farmhouse. There are some cool scarecrows here made up of real people parts. Ox tore one of the down for some reason. Dale checked the field, and said there were no traps. Another ogre with a deformed head came around the side of the building, and we all drew our bows and shot him dead before he could even see us. Another ogre for the stew pot!
ENTRY 4: Dale came up with the best plan ever: go into the farmhouse and kill everything inside! The front door was locked, so Dale picked it. Ox then barged in the front door and gets impaled as four door spikes come swinging into his chest. I was so busy laughing at him that I don't even notice the sawblades came up from the floor and cut my feet all up. Dale claimed he forgot to check the door for traps. He's the best trapfinder I've ever met, but I guess everyone slips up now and then.
Oeuvre said that these traps weren't characteristic of ogres, and given their deformities, thinks that maybe the Brotherhood of the Seven or another cult has been experimenting on the ogres. Stewt healed Ox and myself up before we continued into the house. The front room was decorated with various trophies, including human hands and feet, but unfortunately no halfling feet.
Ox insisted that Dale search for traps before he entered, and when Dale gave him the all clear, Ox walked right into a pit trap and fell down a chute lined with spikes. Dale totally set him up for that! He is the coolest!!!
Once Ox climbed his way out the pit, Stewt tells him that the spikes had been poisoned, and Luna identifies it as spider poison. Ox started to act like a big baby and refused to go anywhere until he got further healing. I thought we should just leave him here, but Stewt healed him up anyway.
ENTRY 5: We headed into the dinning, and scythe blades came swooping down from the ceiling hitting Dale and Oeuvre. Man, Dale must hate that elf more than me if he's willing to take a scythe blade just to hit him too. Stewt healed them up as well. Man, this place is dangerous!
Next, we entered the kitchen and luckily didn't find any more traps. We did, however, find three meat cleaves that could function as exceptional handaxes. We're about to head into the next room. I just hope we find something fleshy to kill and not more traps. However, it is funny watching Ox keep getting hurt!
DAY 26, ENTRY 6: First, we came to a filthy bedroom. Ox was right at home, apparently, and found a jade ring. The next room we encountered had stinking pits for the ogres to relieve themselves. Stewt wanted to check the pits for gold, but Ox wouldn't let him. He shut the door before Stewt could barrel in. Apparently, some smells are too bad even for Ox.
ENTRY 7: Ox got kind of weird after that, he said he was tired and made Dale check the next door. The room was filthy, with painting supplies and some guys propped up in open coffins! There was a fat ogre lady in the room, and Oeuvre made some comment about the gods cheating. The ogre lady made copies of herself, because just one of her wasn't ugly enough. Ox takes out one image with his axe, and Victor gets another one by splashing some more acid. Oeuvre uses his bow to take out two of them. I got two more, and Stewt takes out the last of the images. The ogre lady then hurled a bolt of lightning at us! Ox got hit the hardest, but Victor and Oeuvre were also injured by the attack.
Ox and Victor maintained their assault on the ogre lady. It struck next with both of my weapons, and then bit her. Stewt felt Ox up as he healed him. The ogre lady then made herself all blurry, like you were drunk and had on beer goggles. Ox tried to hit her again, but missed. He then tried to kiss her or something. I think maybe he thought he was drunk and couldn't remember if he was trying to kill her or sleep with her. Stupid Ox.
Victor tried to blind the ogre lady, but his spell failed. Oeuvre strikes with his bow, and I followed up with my acid-coated dog slicer. I drop her lard arse, and start carving up for tonight's stew.
ENTRY 8: We headed up the stairs next and found a workshop where they assembled the traps Ox is so found of. The next room had a big chest with a stuck door. Ox got weird again. He refused to open the chest and left the room. Stewt opened the chest and found a sack of coins. He was so happy that he didn't even notice the war razor that nearly sliced off his hand. I had to remind him to heal himself up here. Ox seemed to know the chest was trapped--he must be learning from Dale. He's probably bitter about Dale setting him up earlier and didn't warn the rest of us. Either that, or he just got lucky? No, that can't be right. He must be smarter than he looks? Well, he'd almost have to be, but still, he can't be that much smarter. Wow, this is a real puzzler.
ENTRY 9: We went down to the basement next. I had a nice pleasant smell of rotting flesh and old blood. We found a rubbery face and figured out that this must be a tannery. Ox couldn't handle this much goodness I guess as he shut the door.
ENTRY 10: The next room had a dirt floor and chains made of skin and bones. If they weren't so filthy, I'd say these ogres sure knew how to live. There was an ogre in the corner. Ouevre wasted no time in shooting him, and I pounced on him and struck a nasty blow with my dog slicer before biting him. Stewt hit the ogre with an acid dart. Ox moved in and struck with his greataxe, and Victor continued with his trusty acid splashing. The ogre hit me with a wicked hook, striking from some crazy weird angle. Oeuvre struck again with his bow, and I followed up with my handaxe while Stewt healed me us. Ox missed again, but Victor kept up his acidic assault. The ogre turned his attention to Ox and hit the big guy with his hook. Oeuvre missed for once. Stewt healed Ox up as I tore out the ogre's throat with my teeth. More ogre meet for the stew!
ENTRY 11: The next room was a cluttered storeroom, with another door in the back. This one led to a room filled with damp, steamy vegetables. Ox must feel the same way about vegetables as I do because he promptly shut this door. Oeuvre suggested that there might be treasure in there, and Stewt, upon hearing the T-word, charged in. Oeuvre and myself followed, and Ouevre was struck by a plant creature. Ox shouted out that it was a tendriculos, but I think he just made that word up so that he would sound smart. Well, smarter at least. Oeuvre falls back from the creature and drew his bow as Ox moved in and struck with his acid. Victor, naturally, continued with his acid splash. Did he forget all his other spells? I moved in next and struck with my handaxe. I then braced myself and took a bite out of the disgusting plant creature. It tasted worse than broccoli! Stewt called upon Torag for a favor and moved into the melee. The plant creature tried to attack me, but I was too quick for it. Ouevre, Ox, and Victor all hit the creature, followed by myself with my handaxe, and then Stewt with his warhammer. The beast tried to attack me next, but it was still too slow. Oeuvre and Victor continued their ranged attack, Ox missed with his greataxe. I struck with my dog slicer and took another disgusting bite from the creature, and Stewt finished it off. It started to knit itself back together again, but Stewt, Victor, and myself used our acid spells and weapons to permanently kill the creature. Stewt then healed us up. Oeuvre found a secret door containing a locked chest. Dale opened it up and we found a longbow that Oeuvre's girlfriend Shalelu said it belongs to her step-father. I told her he's probably dead, and she got mad at me. I guess I just don't get women. I mean, I didn't kill him. At least, I don't think I did. Sometimes it's just hard to keep track of these things.
ENTRY 12: Having cleared the house, we went to search the barn next. We ready our bows (or acid arrow in Stewt's case) as Victor and Jethro open the doors. There were three ogres inside, and we shot one up really good. The ogres come out and attack Ox and Victor, but the third one got stuck behind the other two's fat butts to reach us. I strike one with my handaxe as Stewt heals us up some more. Oeuvre and Ox both strike their targets as well, and Victor backs out of the fight. I strike with both my weapons and bite, thus dropping one of the ogres. One of the remaining ogres tried to run past me, and took an opportune strike with my dog slicer. Ox and the ogre then exchanged blows. Victor, Jethro, and Oeuvre continued their attack, and I hit with both weapons and bite to drop another ogre. Stewt struck the last one with his wrahammer, and Ox, Victor, and Oeuvre all followed up. I strike again with my handaxe and bite the ogre, claiming this kill as well. I killed all three of them, plus the fat lady and the one in the basement too! Why do I need the rest of these losers?
Lots of meet for stew tonight!
ENTRY 13: A door in the back opens up to another room with a large web funnel leading down into a pit. Three cages are on the far wall. Oeuvre and girlfriend made their way over to the cages to talk to the prisoners there. I asked if I kill them too for my stew, but Ox said no. Killjoy!
Oeuvre's girlfriend was happy to find her step-father. See, I told you I didn't kill him lady! She didn't have time to celebrate, however, as a giant spider came up from below. I strike the beast with both weapons and bite it as Stewt called upon Torag for another favor. The spider attempted to hit me, but it was too slow. Ox struck with his greataxe, landing a really nasty blow. Victor continued to acid splash the beast, and Oeuvre followed up with his bow. I struck with my handaxe, and then Stewt hit with his warhammer. Ox missed, but Victor and Oeuvre continued their attack. I hit with both weapons and my bite, but Stewt failed to hit with his warhammer. The spider bit Oeuvre and hurt the elf bad. Ox missed again, but Victor and Oeuvre their ranged attacked. I struck with both weapons and bite allowing Stewt to finish the spider off. The spider fell down into the pit.
The prisoners; Jakardros Sovark (Shalelu's step-dad), Vale Temros, and Kaven Windstrike; are all survivors of an ogre attack on Fort Rannick. They say that the attack was an inside jobs as the ogre knew to attack when most of the rangers were out on their usual patrols. These three were part of one such patrol that was taken captive. Ox thinks the whole thing is a setup.
I wonder if one of these three is the traitor. In particular, I'm suspicious of Jakardros. I mean, he lets his step-daughter date Oeuvre, and that elf hangs out with some pretty shady characters, no?
ENTRY 1: I made Fresh Ogre Soup last night. Ox and Oeuvre said if I eat it, I'll turn into an ogre. They're silly like that. The boss ogre had another one of those sihedron runes on him. As we headed towards the keep, we saw some shocker lizards munching on some grub worms. Ox asked for some leftover soup, and he fed it to the lizards! How wasteful! No wonder someone is urinated in his ale. One of the rangers we rescued said they used to smoke the tunnels to drive the shocker lizards away from the keep. Oeuvre came up with the idea of smoking the shocker lizards from the outside to drive them into the keep and cause a ruckus. This seems to me to be a bad idea as there likely won't be as many ogres to kill when we get there, but the others all seem to want to go along with this idea.
ENTRY 2: We came out of the tunnels into a prison underneath the keep. A noble-looking woman drinking a glass of wine emerged from behind the curtains to greet us. She thanked Kaven (one of the rangers) for helping the ogres capture the fort! She also mentioned someone named Mokmurian (we'll have to find out who that is and kill him later). She then turned into another of those snake-ladies like the one the others fought at the top of the bell tower in Magnimar! I went right for that traitor Kaven and struck with my acid-coated dog slicer, my human bane dagger, and then bit him for good measure. He was hurt pretty bad, but then that pointy-eared jerk Oeuvre shot him with his bow and totally stole my kill again! The serpent-chick tore into Stewt, striking him twice with her rapier and twice with her dagger. With Kaven down, I turned my attention on the serpent-lady while Stewt fell back to heal himself. I hit with both my dog slicer and my handaxe, and got a nice bite in as well. Oeuvre followed up with his bow, and Victor cast a spell to blind her. The serpent-chick then made five copies of herself. Stewt attempted to cast a spell on her, but failed while Ox, Oeuvre, Victor, and myself took out her images (I got two of them while the other losers all got one each). The serpent-chick then struck me with her rapier, but I got her back with my acid-coated dog slicer. Stewt, Oeuvre, Ox, and Victor all followed up with their weapons and acid spells. Oeuvre got a particularly nasty hit on her. She attempted to cast another spell, but failed and I hit her again with my dog slicer and my handaxe. Stewt followed up with an acid dart, then Oeuvre struck her twice more before Ox finished her off. Sadly, I didn't get a chance to land a killing blow so there is nothing for the stew pot so far. Pappy always said to only eat what you kill. That was good advice. I miss him; he was very tasty.
ENTRY 3: We found another ogre that we quickly cut down, with Stewt landing the finishing blow. We then found a library that had been torn apart, and Victor cried like a little girl. We then found an empty workroom with some writing in the Giant language. Stewt said it was just graffiti. If these those ogres can write, then they must be smarter than Ox (but that's not saying much).
ENTRY 4: The next room was an armory of some sort. We encountered three ogres here. I struck one with my dog slicer, Stewt hit another with his warhammer, and Oeuvre struck the third one twice with his bow. The ogres fought back, hitting Stewt and Ox with their ogre hooks. Stewt and Oeuvre continued to hit their targets, but mine was a little tougher, and I was unable to hit it. The ogres continued to tear into us with their dog slicers, with Stewt and myself taking the brunt of their attacks. Victor used a ray to sap the strength of one of the ogres. Oeuvre and I both got really nasty hits in as we continued to fight back, but another two hits from the ogres dog slicers dropped me. Then, a miracle happened. I saw Pretty Bird, and she was alive!
ENTRY 5: After Pretty Bird returned to life, the others fled. Stewt grabbed some poor halfling by the crotch and slung him over his shoulder. I'm so glad that's not me! I bravely offered to cover the party while they escaped, but the ogres ran right past me. I chased after them, and by then the others had reunited with Luna and Dale. They were joined by a red-haired paladin chick, a brunette priestess, and a spiked-haired wizard dude. Dale brought the funny and inspires the others to turn and fight against the ogres. He's apparently in a good mood after his fivesome in the bushes. One of the ogres cut Ox down, which was even funnier that what Dale was doing. Guen and the red-haired chick ganged up on one of the ogres and cut it down. The wizard dude created a flaming sphere that scorches one of the ogres, and when it tries to run, Oeuvre shot it dead. The wizard dude then redirected the flaming sphere on the last ogres and dropped it as well. That wizard is pretty badass.
After the battle, Stewt said the halfling was dead--and it was me! I tried to let the others know I was okay by stabbing Oeuvre's eyes out, but he just went through my blades. Victor got really depressed and decided to quit adventuring with Jethro, and Stewt went with them because he thought Victor could use some short and hairy loving I guess. The rest made camp for the night.
DAY 28, ENTRY 1: I tried letting the others know I was okay again by urinating in Ox's ale mugs during the night, but big dumb Ox didn't even notice. Luna turned into an eagle and scouted the keep. She and the others decided to into the waterfall caves. Dale touched Luna to turn her invisible, and she dropped some obscuring mist near the waterfall to provide cover while they entered. Dale went in first, levitating up to the caves with a rope so that the others could climb up after him. The rangers were apparently using the first cave for extra weapon storage, and Oeuvre found some shiny new magic arrows.
They came to a bridge over a raving. Guen smelled some funny odor (besides Ox). The brunette priestess (whose name is apparently Loraine) cast light on a rock and tossed it down into the ravine. There was something shiny down there! Oeuvre repelled down on a rope and found a short sword and a dead body.
After crossing the bridge one at a time, they came to a burial chamber next. Loraine provided some last rites for the body and buried it. I'm starting to doubt her effectiveness as a cleric. She didn't even check it's crotch for bite marks first! Stewt would be appalled by this!
The cave then exited inside the outer wall but still outside the keep itself. The wizard (whose name I haven’t caught yet) cast a sphere of invisibility, and Loraine blanketed the area with silence. They then entered the keep itself.
The main hall of the keep was damaged heavily by the ogre attack. The first room they encountered was a tool room with an ogre writing some ogre graffiti in it. They all gang up on him and quickly drop him, with Guen getting the killing strike.
The next three rooms were all empty, as were the library where Victor cried like a little girl and the storeroom by the stairs to the dungeon below. Next up was the infirmary where three ogres lurked. Loraine said a prayer to help her allies as the red-haired paladin chick (whose name is Mara) strode in and smote the lead ogre. Ox tried to attack him as well, but missed naturally. The wizard dropped another of his flaming sphere into the room as Oeuvre provided some support fire on the boss ogre. Dale told one of his funny jokes and made one of the lackey ogres fall to the ground laughing as Luna created some ghostly giant jaws that clamped down on the other lackey. Guen mauled the laughing ogre.
The boss ogre attacked Ox, cutting him really hard with his hook, but Mara struck him again with her longsword and brought him down. She is pretty awesome! I'd be in love if she had more hair on her feet. Sigh, I miss Rubi.
Anyway, Loraine then healed up Ox, who unleashed his anger on the lackey grappling with Luna giant jaws. Oeuvre turned his fire on the laughing ogre while wizard dropped the grappled ogre with a force missile as Guen finished off his laughing counterpart..
There were sounds of more ogres approaching from the hall. Guen acts as bait as the others take up positions alongside the door. Two ogres came in before Ox shut the door. With everyone attacking them (and a nasty scorching ray from the wizard) the ogres were quickly dropped.
The door swung open and hit Ox in the face! Five more ogres entered and spread the hurt around. Oeuvre shot one to hell with his bow as the wizard botched casting a spell before moving away. Ox kicked the door shut as he attacked.
Dale fell back as well and told another of his jokes, but this time the ogres didn't find him as funny. Luna then cast a spell of her own to crush the ogre's spirits, but most didn't seem to be affected. Guen finished off the ogre wounded by Oeuvre. Go Guen! Steal that point-eared jerk's kill!
Oeuvre fell back from the fight as Dale upped his game and made another ogre drop to the ground laughing. The wizard created a magical shield to protect himself as Luna turned into a black bear! That's all kinds of hot! As the others continued to trade blows with the ogres, the wizard created a cone of flame that burned two of them. Dale moved in to strike the laughing ogre. One of the ogres opened the door and tried to flee, but both Mara and Oeuvre strike it with their weapons before Ox (of all people) brings it down with his greataxe. He then closed the door again. Dale finished off the laughing ogre as the wizard struck the last one with a magical missile before Guen and Luna finished it off.
Hey Loraine, what's this thing about checking crotches for bite marks?
I don't know, Mara, but this Stewt sounds like quite a dubious character.
Also, I want to correct something here: Mara's feet are indeed quite hairy.
They are not!
ENTRY 2: Having cleared out the ground floor, the guys next headed up to the second floor of the keep. The first room they came across was a trophy room with the defiled and mangled remains of several rangers heaped up on an altar. One ogre with a hook stood guard here. Ox was the first to attack, and the wizard greased the ogre's weapon. Oeuvre struck with his bow next. Loraine cast a blessing on Mara, but she still missed the ogre. The ogre and Ox exchanged blows as the wizard struck with some magical missiles. Oeuvre continued to attack with his bow. Loraine imbued Mara with the strength of the bull, but she still failed in her attacks. The ogre hit her back nonetheless. Ox continued to be uncharacteristically effective with his greataxe as the wizard dropped another of his flaming sphere on the ogre. Oeuvre continued to rain down the hurt with his bow. Mara finally managed to hit the ogre as Loraine healed the party up. Ox dodged the ogres attack as he continued with his run of good luck before the wizard finished off the ogre with a scorching ray. Dale and Luna volunteer to carry the bodies down to the burial chamber while the rest clear the keep.
ENTRY 3: The rest continued on to a planning room where they found an ogre chick and her boyfriend. The sounds of combat from the trophy room must have got them excited because they seemed to be trying to have fun with each other when the party arrived. Oeuvre wasted no time in shooting the due with his bow, who took out his frustration on Ox. The ogre chick tried to cast a spell to confuse the intruders, but it had no effect. Mara channels divine fire into her longsword and attacked the ogre due while Loraine conjured a spiritual weapon to harass the ogre chick.
I started urging Ox to bite the ogre dude, and he must have heard me because he did. The wizard used his wand to blast the ogre chick with a scorching ray, and Oeuvre followed up on her with his bow. The ogre dude hurt Ox pretty bad with his hook as his woman blasted Loraine and Mara with a cacophony (I learned that word from Dale!) of sound. Ox hit the dude back, striking a powerful blow with his greataxe before biting him again. He must be channeling my spirit somehow. It's the only explanation for his sudden effectiveness. Plus he's totally using my bite move.
The wizard struck the ogre chick with another scorching ray from his wand as Oeuvre struck a really nasty hit from his bow to kill her. Her lover takes out his anger on Ox, dropping the big guy as the wizard blasted him with another barrage of magical missiles before Oeuvre finished him off as well. Loraine managed to heal Ox just in time to stop him from dying, although why she went to the trouble is beyond me. I could have used a vic... friend to kil... hang with wherever I am now.
ENTRY 4: After Loraine and Mara healed everyone up, Ox searched the wine cabinet and found some ogre love letters that got Ox all excited. Before he could really enjoy them, Oeuvre mentioned that he heard some noise in the next room over. I thought he might have just made this up to stop Ox from doing what we all knew he was going to do but were afraid to mention, but sure enough there were three more ogres in the next room. The wizard promptly dropped a fireball on them.
Mara boldly strode in and smote the center ogre twice as Loraine called upon her goddess to imbue Ox with a magical shield. Oeuvre began firing on the ogre on the left while Ox moved to engage the right ogre in combat. The wizard provided support fire with scorching rays. Mara struck two nasty blows with her longsword and thus killed the center ogre. Oeuve finished off the left ogre before turning his fire on the one fighting Ox, and the big guy finished him off.
ENTRY 5: Just off that chamber was a map room, which had several maps of the Hook Mountain region and other Varisian locales, including: smugglers' tunnels beneath Riddleport, the first few levels of Wiperwall, and hidden paths of the Lurkwood's interior. They decided to save these for later. The other room of the chamber where they fought the three ogres was an empty storeroom with stairs leading up to a watchtower. There was a bell there, but the ringer had been replaced by a dead ranger. Dale might have said the man was a dead ringer. Mara and Loraine took down and brought him to the burial chamber below. Ox, Oeuvre, and the wizard meanwhile concocted a nasty plan. Oeuvre and Ox would fire at the ogres from the watch tower, while Mara, Loraine, and the wizard stood guard in the chamber leading to the stairs to finish off any storming the keep. Mara hid in the map room while Loraine and the wizard hid in the storeroom. Oeuvre used some of magic missiles he found in the caves beyond the waterfall, and hit one of the boss ogres with it. The arrow erupted in lightning as it hit! Ox finished off the boss with his bow as two lackeys entered the keep.
Ox swapped places with the wizard, who dropped a fireball on one of the towers. Three badly burned ogres emerged, but Oeuvre quickly finished off two to of them. Meanwhile, the two ogres made their way to where the others waited and caught in a crossfire as Ox, Mara, and Loraine all fired their bows and crossbows at him.
The wizard dropped another fireball, this time on the right tower, and three more ogre lackeys and a boss ogre emerged. Oeuvre use another of his magic arrows on the boss. Ox drew his greataxe and dropped one of the two ogres below. Mara struck the other with his crossbow as Loraine cast a blessing on Ox.
The wizard used his last fireball on the ogres that emerged from the right tower, dropping the three lackeys but the captain still remained standing for a few more seconds before Oeuvre finished him off as well. Mara and Ox gang up on the last ogre below. Ox was hurt, but Loraine healed him up, and Ox finished off the ogre that hurt him.
A cook and three more ogres barged in. The wizard and Oeuvre came down to join that fight. Ox wounded one with his axe, and the wizard finished it off with a scorching ray. Oeuvre softened up another with his bow allowing Mara to finish him as well. Go Mara! Steal Oeuvre's kill! Loraine called upon her goddess for divine aid as she prepared to enter combat as well. Ox focused on the cook, and the wizard supported him with magical missiles, as did Loriane. Oeuvre turned his bow on one of the other ogres, and Mara likewise attacked him with her longsword. Oeuvre finished off the one ogre as Loraine downed the cook. Mara drank a potion to heal from her wounds as the last ogre fled.
ENTRY 6: Loraine gave last rites to the dead rangers in the burial chamber. I meanwhile counted all the ogres that we killed today: twenty-eight! That's a lot of ogres. I just wish I could have been there. Sadly, with me not there, nobody made Fresh Ogre Stew.
By the way, girls, what exactly is your relationship that Loraine is well-informed about the hairiness of Mara's feet?
We're just friends.
That's right. I was just, uh, checking her for bite marks.
Loraine!
ENTRY 7: Ox, Oeuvre, and company returned to Turtleback Ferry to sell their loot and rest. The next day, the mayor thanked them and gave them Fort Rannick to run. Shalelu, Jakardros, and Vale stay behind to higher help and set things up there while the others took a trip to Magnimar for supplies. I need to figure how to get one of them to kill Rubi so I'll have some company here.
DAY 42, ENTRY 1: The losers finally returned from Magnimar. I couldn't get anyone to kill Rubi, and feel kind of bad about it. I really miss her. At least I have that locket of her foot hair for company.
ENTRY 2: The dam at Skull's Crossing broke and some drowned ogres washed down as the river flooded the town. It figures the dam would break just when Ox returned. The mayor claims Turtleback Ferry will flood. Oeuvre suggested evacuating the townsfolk to Fort Rannick, but then charging them! I have to say this is entirely wrong and wish that I could tell him so. It would be far more heroic to kill them all before the water gets them. That's what I would have done had I'd still been there.
Ox helped some school children, who were apparently were being taught by Stewt because he was in the school with them. I hope he was instructing them all on how to search for bite marks. I'd hate to see them turn into ghouls. Actually, who am I kidding? A bunch a ghoul school children running around killing and eating people would be so cool! They'd be like a bunch of miniature Kozes!
A large snake came out of the water. Oeuvre quickly shot out one of the snake's eyes. The wizard, whose name I learned was Savir during the trip to Magnimar, splashed the snake with acid. Ox and Mara followed up, striking with axe and sword respectively, and Oeuvre finished off the snake as Stewt was preparing to grapple it. He seemed pretty saddened by this--Stewt was obviously looking forward to wrestling with the giant one-eyed snake. Ox found a boat and pulled it ashore and used it to rescue Stewt and the school children. Stewt had the children bundle around him so they wouldn't fall out.
ENTRY 3: What at first appeared to be a big black tree was about to collide with the church, but it actually turned out to be a gargantuan tentacled creature emerged from the water. Mara called it a "fiend" and called upon Iomedae to smite it. The villagers began to panic and run. Oeuvre struck the fiend twice with his bow, one of which was one of those exploding-lighting arrows he found in Fort Rannick. Ox got really mad (methinks he wanted to go with Stewt and the school children) and attacked, but he missed and took a tentacle to his ugly face.
Savir starts blasting fireballs into the sky, just low enough to hit the fiend without striking any of his allies or bystanders. Mara joined Ox on the front lines and tried to smite the fiend with her blade, but the dumb chick hasn't figured out yet that you can't stand next to Ox and expect to hit anything. Loraine called upon Iomedae to blind the fiend, but nothing happened. The fiend then fiend-slapped Mara with a tentacle and then took a bite out of Ox. And you thought ghouls tasted bad!
Mara and Ox continued to miss the beast (they could really use some halfling fury), and even the usually reliable Oeuvre failed to hurt the creature with his arrows. Savir dropped another fireball as Loraine partially healed Mara and Ox, just in time for Mara to take two more tentacle slaps and Ox to get bit again. Savir struck the creature with a scorching ray as Loraine did what she could to heal Ox and Mara from the fiend's attacks, but the rest continued to miss. The fiend then turned and tried to flee with Oeuvre and Savir getting in some parting hits as it submerged into the floodwaters and vanished. The townfolk all cheered, even though they failed to kill the creature. Just think of the feast they could have had! That thing might have fed the whole town.
ENTRY 4: Contrary to the fears of the townfolk, the floodwaters receded. The dam apparently hasn't fully burst, at least not yet. The mayor tasked Ox and Oeuvre to go to the damn and open the floodgates before the dam truly does burst. After Loraine heals up Mara and Ox with her wand, they group set off for Skull's Crossing.
ENTRY 5: The group decided to stop at Fort Rannick for dinner and rest for the night before proceeding to Skull's Crossing.
DAY 43, ENTRY 1: The group arrived at Skull's Crossing. A massive wall of stone spans the great gorge. Thousands of skulls were carved into the face of the dam, with the five largest one decorating the middle. The easternmost of these skulls is covered by the flow of cascading water pouring through a break in the dam. A winding-staircase leads up to a cave mouth. The steps are line with stakes decorated with both animal and humanoid skulls. Ox said that the stakes were territory markers for a tribe of trolls. I'm not fooled. He obviously just made that up to look smart.
Oeuvre, Mara, Ox, and even Savir easily climb up the overly large steps, but Loraine needed the others to throw down a rope to help her up. Ox heard a noise up ahead and Mara used her wand on herself in preparation for combat. Savir poked his head around the corner and say a hulking form waiting to attack. Is it a troll? Could Ox have possibly been right about something, or anything? Savir didn't wait to find out and dropped a fireball on the hulk. He misjudged the distance and got caught in the blast himself. With eyebrows singed off his face, he retreated behind the others.
Ox strode forth to engage the hulk and found it to be not a troll, but rather an ettin. Stupid Ox couldn't tell the difference! Ox and Mara attacked and hit the creature with their usual weapons, and Savir blasted the ettin with a scorching ray. Lorraine invoked a spiritual longsword that also attacked the ettin, and Oeuvre finished it off with his bow.
ENTRY 2: The caves opened on another set of stairs leading up to the top of the dam. Five ogres were busy trying to dismantle the damn. Savid dropped a fireball on them, and two of them dropped dead. Oeuvre quickly finished off two more with his bow. Loraine hit the last one with her crossbow. Both Mara and Ox struck then finished it off with their longbows.
Savir then cast a flying spell and Ox and told him he had to carry everyone up to the dam. Ox got mad at this, but carried Savir and Oeuvre first, then came back for the girls. I noticed he copped a feel on both of them, which prompted some pretty vulgar and surprisingly descriptive languages from Mara about sundering his not-so-great-"sword" if he ever tried anything like that again. Don't tell Rubi, but I think I'm starting to like her.
Ah, how sweet, Mara, you have a secret admirer!
Now girls, behave!
ENTRY 3: Ox opened the door to Skull's Watch. The first room was littered with rubble and dead ogres. Loraine checked on one, and said it is fresh. She forgot to check it for bite marks though!
Oeuvre spotted some creatures in this room and four trolls attacked! See Ox, there are trolls here, and you didn't believe me!
Savir dropped a fireball on them as Ox charged in to attack. The trolls struck back, slashing at Ox and Oeuvre with their claws. Loraine struck one with her morningstar before backing up a step, and Mara's longsword ignited in fire and cuts down one of the troll with two hits from her flaming blade. Oeuvre dropped another one, but it wounds were still healing. Ox gave another troll a nasty slash with his greataxe, dropping it but like Oeuvre failing to kill it. He then cleaved his weapon into the troll's buddy. Savir followed up on the remaining troll with a magical missile as Mara finished off one of the downed ogres. Loraine channeled some glowing light that healed Ox and Oeuvre (boo!) while Oeuvre dropped the last troll with his bow. Mara finished off the two downed but still alive trolls.
ENTRY 4: In one chamber, they found a treasure cache behind a loose stone containing some lacy pink gloves. I think they would look good on Ox, especially if he ever starts dancing in haunted mansions again. Another room had some graffiti in Giant that Ox translated (Ox can read?!?): "BELOW DWELLS WET PAPA GRAZUUL! ALL HAIL WET PAPA GRAZUUL!" But surely that's not what it actually said since we all know Ox can't read.
ENTRY 5: Having cleared the upper level of Skull's Watch, they headed down stairs to a room with a pool with skull carvings in the wall and a mound of actual humanoid skulls!
A scrag emerged from the pool (Wet Papa Grazuul? No, can't be. Ox is too dumb to read) and attacked Ox with a giant fork, but the scrag took damage too. This would make the perfect weapon for Ox! If only I can talk the big buy into using it.
Mara tried to attack the scrag, but she still hasn't figured out not to stand too close to Ox and missed. Loraine meanwhile healed Ox's wounds (why does she keep doing that!). Ox struck the scrag with his greataxe, and Savir followed up with a scorching ray. Oeuvre and Mara both hit with their attacks as well as Loraine granted everyone Iomedae's blessing.
The scrag struck back at Ox, stabbing him in the chest and leaving a really nasty looking wound. The big coward had to withdraw as Savir blasted the scrag with a cone of fire from his hands. Oeuvre then shot it three times, once in each lung and in the shoulder. He's actually kind of cool when he's not stealing my kills. Mara then finished of the scrag with her longsword by nearly decapitating it. Loraine healed Ox some more (again!), who dragged the scrag out of the pool so it wouldn't regenerate (something's not right here: Ox has been hitting things in combat, can read, and now knows things? He must be an imposter! I need to find a way to warn the others). Oh, and Savir struck the scrag once more with a scorching ray just to make sure it stayed dead.
ENTRY 6: Beyond the pool, they found a scale model of the dam with the five giant skulls in the model being actually humanoid skulls! I really like the décor in this place. Savir investigates the model and says that it actually serves as the controls for the floodgate, but that they don't seem to responding.
In another chamber were two circles. One contained a pile of crimson ash, while the other contained the unconscious form of a devil, which Mara called a pit fiend. She studied the creature and determined that it was evil and therefore alive. She went on to say that the ashes were the remains of a second demon or devil.
The pit fiend rose and said it was trapped there by someone named Karzoug. Another pit fiend had been similarly trapped, but the dam had drained him to death. Savir and Oeuvre tried to figure out how to activate the floodgates with just one devil, but were unable to come up with anything. I told Ox that he should stand in the other circle, and he must have heard me because he did so! Maybe this really is Ox afterall--who else would be dumb enough to do that!
The floodgates activated, draining the devil of its last bit of life. Ox was weakened, but Loraine assured him the effects were temporary. They resolve to contact Victor to operate the floodgates in the future by summoning creatures to be drained by the dam, and then returned to Fort Rannick to rest.
DAY 44, ENTRY 1: In the morning, a pixie named Yap came to Fort Rannick. He said his mistress was ill, and forest of Whitewillow is suffering as result. Everyone gathered their supplies and headed out.
ENTRY 2: They arrived at Whitewillow, which has obviously become twisted and corrupted. Oeuvre said that this was because of Ox's smell. Poisonous spiders, birds dying in shadows, and something slithering with too many eyes all lurk nearby. Tall, dark robed figures appear in the woods but upon closer look turn out to be nothing more then twisted trees. Ox found a pool devoid of life and said it was not safe to drink the water (even Ox isn't THAT dumb). Some ghostly fey emerge from the trees accompanied by phantom animals. This whole place is really quite creepy.
ENTRY 3: They fund a derelict ship inexplicably in the middle of a swamp. Upon investigating, they find the remains of the captain holding a harpsichord, unfamiliar looking nautical charts, a silver goblet, and a book of wondrous music. Dale says the book contains masterpieces and is quite valuable. As they leave the ship, a white dog appears on the deck and watches them with milky blind eyes before wandering off into the swamp and vanishing.
ENTRY 4: They finally reached a clearing. Yap started to get nervous and refused to continue any further. A stunningly-beautiful ghost appeared before them with nasty eyes. She started shrieking at everyone for failing Lamatar, failing to protect Fort Rannick, and allowing the Kreeg ogres to take him to their lair high on Hook Mountain. She demanded that they return Lamatar to her.
ENTRY 5: They traveled up to Hook Mountain, which was covered in snow. Ox followed a hunting trail to avoid the most difficult terrain. They came to a cave guarded by two ogres. Loraine called upon Iomedae and created a ghostly longsword to attack the ogres while Savir fired magic missiles and the others fired their bows. Oeuvre dropped one of the two ogres. The remaining ogre tried to throw his spear at Oeuvre, but missed. The ogre yelled in alarm as the others dropped him as well and then hid.
Two more ogres came to investigate, with one returning inside to rally more help. With fired on the remaining ogre, but he ran only to return with his friend and ten more ogres!
Savir wasted no time in dropping a fireball on the lot them, and then Oeuvre finished off three of them with his bow. Ox charged up and dropped one more with his greataxe as Savir finished off another with a magical missile.
The remaining ogres charged Ox, and one hit him with his hook. Oeuvre dropped three more with his bow. Ox struck back at two ogres with his greataxe, but was unable to drop either one. Savir fired an acid arrow and another ogre fell. The ogres continue to pound on Ox, but Oeuvre take out another ogre with his bow. Mara and Loraine teamed up and finished off the last of the ogres.
ENTRY 6: As they entered the cave, there were jagged bone protrusions from the stone. Savir said they were the remains of a blue dragon! Beyond the bones was a statue of a giant wearing gem-encrusted armor, a helmet shaped like a fanged devil, and a Sihedron medallion. He was holding a glaive. Savir identified the glaive, armor, and medallion as all magic. Naturally, Ox looted the statue then.
ENTRY 7: They came to a deserted guard post. There were three tunnels leading off of the cave, and they explored the left one first. This appeared to be some kind of forge, also deserted. I guess they killed all the ogres already.
ENTRY 8: The middle tunnel led to a cave where three hags were hiding. Savir attempted to strike one with a scorching ray from his wand, but the spell fizzled against the hag. Ox moved in and missed with his greataxe. Loraine prayed to Iomedae as Mara moved in and struck a hag with her longsword. The hags worked together to cast a spell that enclosed Ox in a magic cage while some ugly guy with claws came out of nowhere and attacked Loraine. Loraine's armor shielded her from the guys claws, and Mara called out that he was Lamatar reanimated as an undead creature she called a wight. Oeuvre used his lightning arrows and quickly dropped Lamatar.
Savir attempted to dispel the magic cage, but failed as Mara twice struck the hag once more with her longsword. She's a lot more awesome when she's not standing near Ox. Loraine called upon Iomedae for aid, and succeeded where Savir had failed in removing Ox's magic cage. Ox then struck at the hags with his greataxe, cleaving through one and striking the other as well. Oeuvre tried to offer support to Ox, but only struck with one of his arrows. Apparently even attacking someone next to Ox can cause bad luck.
Strangely, Ox's bad luck aura doesn't seem to affect him. He brought one hag down with his axe and cleaved through to the second again, which Savir finished with a barrage of magical missiles. Mara cut off the head of the last hag.
ENTRY 9: The last tunnel led to a shrine of Lamashtu and a tiered ramp leading up to a throne. One statue sat on the throne while another stood nearby. Savir detected magic items on the statues, and Ox moved to loot the one on the throne. The statue started to talk to him!
The statues were actually stone giants. They didn't want us to leave with the remains of Lamatar. Oeuvre offers some pointers on how to kill giants and shot the one sitting on the throne. The other stone giant attacked and hit Mara with his greatclub while the one on the throne cast a spell on Ox leaving him exhausted.
Ox fought back, striking the giant on the throne with his greataxe. Savir followed up with a scorching ray. Mara, meanwhile, struck the other stone giant twice with her longsword, one attack hurting her foe quite badly. Oeurve continued with his ranged attack on the throne giant.
Mara was struck again, and the throne giant lashed out at Ox, hitting him three times with his earthbreaker. Ox chickened out and fell back as Savir dropped a fireball on the throne giant. Maybe if Savir cast a whole bunch of spells, Ox might be able to win against a big bad guy for once instead of just taking out lackeys.
Mara finished off the other stone giant as Loraine continued to heal the party. Oeuvre struck the throne giant twice with his bow, the second arrow striking the giant in the eye and finishing him off again. Loraine patched everyone up as they looted the giants before returning Myriana.
ENTRY 10: They brought the remains of Lammatar to Myrianna, who resurrected him and was thus relieved of her depression and nature was restored. She offered then offered magic belts and headbands to everyone. The group then decided to return to Magnimar to sell off the rest of their loot and resupply before embarking on further adventures.
DAY ?, ENTRY 1: Sorry, but I lost track of the days. Being dead will do that to you. Not only that, but while I was busy killing goblin ghosts, those losers I used to hang with returned to Sandpoint for some reason. It was a good thing too because stone giants were attacking the town along with giant bears! The giants were catching people and putting them in large leather bags. Maybe they were planning on making stew later. Sadly, we will never know as those giants were killed and the people rescued.
ENTRY 2: A red dragon join the attack, setting fire to the garrison and gulping down several hapless citizens. He then turned his attention to the cathedral and set fire to it as well. Loraine and Mara were the first to arrive, with Loraine calling upon Iomedae to send aid while Mara strode right up and smote the dragon with her longsword. Savir invoked an ice storm on the dragon, striking the giant wyrm in the blast while carefully missing Mara. Ox held back for now, shooting at the dragon but missing. Stupid Ox forgot that Oeuvre's the archer and he uses an axe. Dale began one of his inspirational comedy routines as Oeuvre fired on the dragon as well, but since he was standing next to Ox, naturally missed. The dragon then unloaded with its fiery breathe, heavy injuring the entire party!
During the fight, the shouts of a giant could be heard calling for more prisoners, in particular greedy merchants.
Iomedae sent a water elemental to help out, and it arrived behind the dragon. Loraine then poured healing into Ox. Mara flanked with the elemental and smote the dragon twice more with her longsword, with one of her strikes leaving a particularly nasty slash in the dragon's scaly hide. Dale moved in with his longsword and struck another nasty blow again the dragon. Ox then got mad and charged the dragon, finishing it off with his axe.
ENTRY 3: Oeuvre ran after the barking giant and found him bossing around two lackey stone giants. The rest followed, with Loraine channeling more healing into the party and leaving the water elemental to extinguish the fires at the cathedral.
Oeuvre took shot at the lead giant. The lackeys closed for melee as the lead giant hurled boulders. Mara and Dale both attacked the lackey giants, but both missed. Ox struck on of the lackey giants with his greataxe, scoring a nasty hit that allowed Oeuvre to easily finish off the giant. The other lackey struck Mara with his greatclub while the leader struck Oeuvre with a boulder. Loraine channeled more healing into the party as Mara retaliated, striking the stone giant lackey twice with her longsword. Dale tried to tell a funny joke, but the boss giant didn't fall down laughing. Savir blasted the lackey giant with magical missiles, and Ox followed up with his axe before Oeuvre finished him off with his longbow.
Mara and Loraine closed on the boss giant, with Mara hitting him. The giant struck back at Loraine. Savir flew in position behind the boss giant, and Dale blasted him with an enfeebling ray to sap the giant's strength. Ox struck with his axe next, but Oeuvre missed with his bow. The boss giant struck Mara twice. Mara missed with her counterattack as Loraine continued to channel healing energy. Dale attempted to make the giant fall down laughing once more, but boss giant shook off the laughter. Savir came at the boss giant from behind and blasted him with a shocking grasp of lightning. Ox and Oeuvre followed up with their respective weapons, as did Mara and Loraine but the latter two missed with their attacks. Dale scored a nasty hit with his longsword before Savir dazzled it with a colorful spray before Ox finished it off. They then rescued more people from those giant leather bags.
ENTRY 4: The party spotted smoke coming from across the bridge. Following the smoke, they came across a wagon with more sacked humanoids as well as other valuable outside the Scarnetti family home just outside the town. Three more stone giants arrived with more loot. Both Savir and Dale dropped fireballs on them, the latter using a scroll to do so. Ox and Mara closed for melee as Loraine called on Iomedae for additional celestial aid. Oeuvre struck one of the giants with his bow.
The giants struck back, with one each attacking and striking Ox and Mara. The third giant threw a large piece of furniture at the rest but missed. Loraine summoned a glowing lantern light the zapped one of the giants with a beam of light. Mara missed with her longsword. Dale closed for melee and began to sing as Savir moved for a better position. Ox and Oeuvre both struck a giant. Mara's armor protected her from another blow, but Ox wasn't as fortunate. The third giant then charged Savir.
Loraine said a prayer to Iomedae as her lantern continued to harass the stone giants. Mara missed once more with her longsword. Savir backed away from stone giant that attacked him and conjured giant black tentacles to grapple him. Dale then told one of his funny jokes that made the giant attacking Ox laugh hysterically, allowing Ox to hit it with his greataxe. Oeuvre then fired upon the giant that charged Savir and finished it off.
Mara dodged the giant's greatclub once more, but she continued to miss with her attack. Loraine called upon Iomedae and a spiritual longsword appeared to help Mara out. Dale struck the laughing giant with his longsword. Savir attempted to splash him with acid, but missed. Ox move to help Mara and finished her giant off. They then gathered around the laughing giant and hacked him apart until he stopped laughing.
More people were rescued from the large leather sacks while Dale pocked some incriminating letters from one of the desks. The poor stone giants' wives and children will probably go hungry now. If I were still alive, I wouldn't let that happen. I'd have killed them first before they could starve to death.
ENTRY 5: They returned to Sandpoint and learned that while they were busy some giants looted the tavern and made off with all the alcohol in town. Ox's sorrowful howl of "NOOOOOOOO!" was heard for miles around.
ENTRY 6: The Scarnetti family gave a reward to the party for saving their butts. Oeuvre wanted to blackmail them with the letters Dale found, but the others turned them over to Sheriff Hemlock for an additional reward.
ENTRY 7: One of the subdued giants was still alive. Dale brought him around for questioning. He is shamed to have been defeated by "little humans."
He must have missed Oeuvre's ears and Ox's tusks, or maybe he was just too lazy to say "little humans, a half-orc, and an elf."
Dale told the giant tales of my exploits before my death, and the giant was so impressed by me that he spilled the beans in exchange for safe passage. He revealed that his lord was Mokmurian (remember that snake lady at Fort Rannick? She mentioned him too!). He said Mokmurian was a stone giant had mastered ancient magic, that he was able to turn living creatures into stone, make his own flesh as hard as stone, and even cause the earth itself to repell his enemies. Mokmuian had united seven tribes of stone giants into a vast army. The raid on Sandpoint was supposed to be a scouting party led by Taractenus, who got overly ambitious and decided to attack the town with the promise of easy riches. The dragon, whose name is Longtooth, was talked into joining the raid as well. The giant revealed the giant's lair was somewhere near Mokmurian's fortress. Others also served Mokmurian, including ogres, hill giants, ettins, trolls, and lamias. They noticed that he was wearing the Sihedron rune, and the giant said that they were asked to wear the mark as a sign of faith to Mokmurian. They giant then gave directions to Mokmurian's fortress and the others let him go as agreed. Oeuvre then tracked him down and killed him on his own. I always liked that elf.
NEW DAY, ENTRY 1: The party arrived in Magnimar today. Ox, accompanied by Loraine, visited the deputy again. He explained about the stone giant attack on Sandpoint, but the deputy remained skeptical about a larger threat. Ox paid him 10 gold to arrange and appointment with the lord-mayor. Ox told the lord-mayor that he would like assistance in removing the stone giant threat, and when Loraine points that this will keep Ox out of the city for at least 4 weeks, the lord-mayor gave him a promissory note for eight thousand gold. They used this note that along with loot liberated from the stone giants to purchase new equipment. Two thousand gold to keep Ox away for a week? They should just go around from town to town with this deal and clean up! Of course, they wouldn't get to kill anything if they spent all there time doing this, but then everything has a downside.
Also, Loraine gave Ox a platinum ring. I'm not sure what that's about, but I really hope she's not looking for some half-orc loving. You know what they say: when you go green, it's quite obscene!
NEW DAY, ENTRY 1: It's about two weeks since they left Magnimar for the stone giant fortress Jorgenfist, which the captured-but-now-dead giant said was located in the middle of the Iron Peaks. The journey has so far taken them up the Lost Coast Road, over to Ember Lake, then up to Galduria, and Wolf's Ear. They are currently approaching Ravenmoor and from there will climb the Stoval Stairs up to the plateau and travel to Iron Peaks from there.
Along the way, they had encountered several signs of giants. First, they came upon a large camp site with the mostly eaten carcass of a 14 ft.-long auroch. What a waste of good meat! Ox, with his boundless intellect, said that it was probably a giant campsite. It was a good thing we brought the big guy with us because the rest of us were thinking it was goblins. That was sarcasm, by the way.
The next sign of giants was the remains of a caravan attack. The field was littered with shattered stones and pulped bodies. Loraine said that given the state of the bodies, the attack occurred was several days ago (how she was able to do this without checking their crotches is a mystery to me). Anything worth looting had been taken, except for the bodies. These giants sure waste a lot of good meat. If I were still alive, I'd kill the lot of them for this crime. That, and it's just so fun to kill things.
The party next found a giant cairn. Dale said that giants don't typically bury valuables with their dead. Nonetheless, they worked to unearth the body to investigate. Loraine said that the giant suffered from a massive bite (surprisingly not in the crotch), claws, and a massive poisonous wound. Dale said that the giant's killer was probability a wyvern.
ENTRY 2: The party reached Ravenmoor. The townsfolk report many sightings of giants and friends gone missing (mostly merchants, soldiers, hunters, and other travelers). They fear that the giants took them, just like the ones in Sandpoint were trying to do. Maybe these giants are particularly eaters and like their meat really fresh. I wonder if they cook it first or eat it raw. Too bad I can't ask the townfolk because the others were too stupid to think of this. Oh well, we'll probably learn soon enough. The party decided to rest in town for the night.
NEW DAY, ENTRY 1: In one of the outlying farms of Ravenmoor, the party encountered a band of ogres attempting to make off with the cattle livestock. Dale, Savir, and Oeuvre all circle around the ogres' flank while Ox, Mara, and Loraine approached directly.
Oeuvre got things happening by opening fire on the ogres, and after Savir dropped a fireball on the lot of them, the one wounded by Oeuvre dropped. Ox forgot to use his axe again and fired his bow as Mara boldly charged in and exchanged blows with the ogre. Loraine called upon Iomedae to send a spiritual longsword to help in the fight. Dale continued to circle around. Two of the ogres ganged up on Mara, one of which busted her head open with his greatclub.
The third ogre charged at Oeuvre, but Oeuvre backed out of range of and dropped him with a few rapid shots from his longbow. Ox remembered he's supposed to use his axe and moved in to the kill another ogre with his weapon, leaving only one ogre in the fight. Mara withdrew so Loraine could heal her wounds as the spiritual longsword struck the ogre. Savir blasted the last ogre with four magical missiles before Dale struck from behind with his longsword. The ogre attempted to flee, but Oeuvre brought him down with his bow.
Some humans then emerged from their hiding places. They say a lot of ogres and giants have been attacking the locals lately. Ox asked the farmer if the giant's were well equipped--I guess he's feeling threatened by their large size.
The party gave the ogre's loot to the farmers to cover the loss of their livestock, and after taking out just enough to cover their losses, the farmers gave the rest back to the party. They've been a lot more charitable since they stopped hanging with Stewt, Victor, and myself for some reason.
NEW DAY, ENTRY 1: The party approached the Storval Stairs, rugged natural steppes leading up to the Storval Plateau. The stairs were flanked by giant statues that had crumbled and eroded. There were also ruins of ancient buildings nearby that were apparently recently cleaned out of harpies and trolls. There was a large crash as a boulder from above as one stone giant alerted three other sentries by throwing a boulder at them.
Savir bought the others some time by creating a storm of ice on the giants, driving them away from the pile of boulders. Dale turned invisible before ascending the stairs and pouring magic oil and the boulders to shroud them in darkness. The others began to climb the stairs then, with Mara calling for a favor from Iomedae. Loraine began another summoning as Savir dropped a fireball on the stone giants.
The stone giants surged forward with their greatclubs, two each attacking Mara and Ox. Dale turned visible from the side as he blasted all four giants with a bolt of lightning he cast from a scroll. Oeuvre supported Mara with his longbow. Savir created several mirror images of himself as Ox attacked with his greataxe, striking one of the stone giants. Mara scored two nasty slashes with her longsword against the stone giant wounded by Oeuvre and dropped him. Loraine channel healing energy as a celestial lion appeared behind one of the giants fighting Ox and slashed him with its claws. The giant struck back, one busting up Mara again with his greatclub and the other two hitting Ox.
Dale began and inspirational song as Oeuvre struck one of the stone giants facing Ox thrice to drop the giant. Ox struck the other giants facing him with his greataxe before Savir blasted the same stone giant with two fiery rays to him off. The celestial lion pounced on the stone giant facing Mara, striking with both claws just before Mara struck him with her longsword. The last remaining giant struck Mara back twice. Dale moved in from behind and dropped the stone giant with his longsword.
Loraine healed up Ox and Mara with her wands as the rest looted the giants.
ENTRY 2: As the party continued across the plateau, Ox uncovered the tracks of 2 stone giants and 3 dire bears, and was able to find a route to Jorgenfist avoiding patrols
ENTRY 3: Finally, the party has reached Jorgenfist! A watchtower stands guards nearby, but it is overshadowed by a giant black tower. This tower looms over the entire valley, part of a ringed-shaped stone wall surround three buildings within. Five lesser towers also protect the ringed fortress, one of which is wider than the others and contains the only gate. Tribe of hill giants, ogres, and five different tribes of stone giants are all camped around the fort.
Dale said that stone giants are not typically warlike and tend to organize themselves in small tribes. He thinks if we take out Mokmurian, the army will disperse. Ox remembered that the stone giant they captured in Sandpoint said that the dragon Longtooth had his lair nearby. Savir cast a spell allowing Dale to fly, and he went invisible as he scouted the area. He spotted only a single giant at the watchtower, and found three nearby caves: two by the river to the southeast and one to the Iron Peaks to the northeast. He also noted that the fortress itself had been created by magic.
So Loraine, what's this I hear about you and Ox? You can do so much better than him. Not as good as me, naturally, since even Dale's not in quite my league.
Mara, Ox and I are just friends. Still, it was quite brave of him to risk himself like that back at Skull's Crossing to power the floodgates.
ENTRY 4: They found the dragon's lair, now deserted what with him being dead and all. There were no magic items there, but plenty of valuables. They thought would be a good place to rest for the night.
NEW DAY, ENTRY 1: The party decided to explore the caves down by the river in hope of finding a backdoor into the fortress. Savir cast invisibility sphere to conceal them from any giants on watch. Dale found a sturdy boulder to attach their ropes to, and they scaled down the cliff to the higher of the two caves. Dale, Mara, and Loraine all suffered rope burns, but nobody fell. Loraine and Dale healed the wounds with their wands.
ENTRY 2: Ox took out an everburning torch from his backpack and Loraine cast a spell imbuing her shield with a glowing light. In the caves, Ox spotted web. He lit and threw a real torch at them to burn them, which drew three giant spiders out to attack. Dale said that they were deathweb spiders and that they had been altered by ancient Thassilonian magic. Savir invoked a ball of fire which burned two of the spiders, and Ox struck both with his greataxe as well. Mara squinted at them and said they were undead creature, called upon Iomedae as she smote one of the two fighting Ox. She cleaved the spider in two with her longsword! Loraine aimed at the uninjured spider and sent a ray of bright light at it and burned out one of the spider's eyes. Dale sprung forth and struck the one fighting Ox before falling back again as Oeuvre shot the one wounded by Loraine.
The spiders fought back. One attempted to attack Ox, but missed the half-orc. However, spiders swarmed off of the deathweb spider and onto Ox and nipped at his flesh. The other spider spit out a web the entangled all save Ox and Mara.
Ox struck his spider once more as the flaming sphere continued to burn it. Mara then drove her longsword into the creature's face to finish it off. Loraine called upon Iomedae for another spectral longsword to strike the last spider, and Oeuvre finished it off with his bow.
Savir directed the flaming sphere through the cave to clear out the webs. Dale found two hidden tunnel in the rear of the cave, along with several dead bodies. They were mostly humanoids, but also a few young wyverns and giants. Loraine said that they were killed by the spiders and have been dead for some time. Amongst their possessions were a magical longsword, halberd, and staff. Savir said that the staff had been imbued with a rusting grasp spell.
ENTRY 3: One of the two tunnels descended to caverns below. There was a slithering sound and a reptilian stink. Ox moved on to investigate while the others held back. Three wyverns emerged from the darkness and attacked!
Ox charged one of the wyverns and struck it with his greataxe as Savir dropped a fireball on the other two. Loraine called upon Iomedae to send aid as Mara moved to attack another. Dale began to sing, and Oeuvre fired at the wyvern facing neither Mara nor Ox. Ox was stung by his wyvern, and Mara took a slash from her wyvern's claws. The other wyvern closed on Dale to attack, but missed.
Ox finished off his wyvern with some magical missile support from Savir. Mara slashed at her wyvern with her longsword as Loraine moved to Ox's side to heal him with her wand. Iomedae sent a celestial lion to help out and it flanked with Dale, clawing at it twice and setting up Dale for a sneaky attack. Oeuvre shot the wyvern with his bow then to finish it off. Ox then moved to Mara's side and decapitated the wyvern with his axe. In the wyvern cave, the found another magic staff and opening onto the cliff overlooking the river (it was the lower cave).
ENTRY 4: They returned to the spider cave and explored the other tunnel. These tunnels were lined with icky slime, and Mara continuously commented on how disgusting the slime was. Oeuvre spotted movement ahead in spite of her whining.
Five halfling-sized creatures attacked then. They looked like hateful old men wielding human-sized scythes and wore crimson red hats and wicked spiked boots. It would have liked to get my hands of those boots, or is that feet? Perhaps it's for the best though as they probably wouldn't be very comfortable. Then again, that's the price you have to pay to look cool.
Four of them swarmed on Ox, hitting him with their scythes and spiked boots while the fifth hung back. Oeuvre called them redcaps and shot one of them. Mara struck another with her longsword, and noticed that her weapon wasn't very effective. Loraine invoked a spell to take some of the injuries inflicted on Ox (why anyone would do this is baffling!). Dale blasted the redcaps, Ox, and Mara with a burst of sound. Ox cleaved through all four of them as Savir cast a spell on Ox to harden his flesh to stone.
The wounds dealt to the redcaps began to rapidly heal! Two of them attack Ox and Mara, but the others were stunned by Dale's sonic attack. Oeuvre shot another one with his bow, but was still not having much luck against them. Dale suggested they try cold iron weapons, and Mara dropped her magic sword to draw her cold iron one. Loraine called upon Iomedae to smite the evildoers with bright burst of light. All of the redcaps were hurt by the blast, as was Ox to a lesser extent, but Mara was unharmed by the assault. Dale tumbled past the recapst o flank with Ox, who continued to cleave through them and cut deep into one's shoulder. Savir followed up on the one badly injured by Ox with a barrage of magical missiles.
Two of the redcaps that were blinded by Loraine's attack attempted to flee, but Ox dropped one with his greataxe and the other tripped over him. The other three continued to attack, and Dale was struck by one's scythe while the other two failed to hit Mara and Ox. Mara struck the most wounded redcap with her cold iron longsword, and found this blade to be more effective against them as the redcap dropped. Loraine channeled healing into her allies. Oeuvre continued to provide ranged support fire. Dale moved to finish off the redcap that tripped, hitting him with a wand to suck the life out of him and heal his wounds. Ox cleaved the other two with his greataxe, dropping another one. Savir followed up with more magical missiles to down the other.
The last redcap got to his feet and exchanged blows with Dale. Oeuvre moved up and shot him with his bow. Mara retrieved her magic longsword as Loraine created another spectral longsword that struck the redcap. Dale then hit the redcap with his wand again to finish him off and heal his injures.
ENTRY 5: The tunnel opened up into a larger cave where a female kobold lurked with some nice equipment. Ox charged the kobold and slashed deep into her chest with his greataxe. Savir then blasted the kobold with a pair of scorching ray. Mara moved in and with a cry to Iomedae, smote the kobold with her longsword. Loraine said a prayer to Iomedae as well as Dale began another inspiring song. Oeuvre shot the kobold with his bow.
The kobold took a bead off his necklace and threw it at the party, engulfing all save the agile Dale in its blast. Loraine took the worst of the blast. Ox then finished the kobold off with his greataxe.
ENTRY 6: The party next found four stone giants chomping down on some grub in a large cave littered with tables surrounding a giant throne on a raised platform. Dale was first to act, using his wand to zap one giant with an enfeebling ray. Loraine called upon Iomedae to bless the party as Mara moved in and attacked a stone giant. Savir used a bead from the kobold's necklace to blast the other three stone giants with a fireball. Ox moved in to attack, but didn't like where he was standing and got mad at the stone giant for some reason. Oh, and he missed his attack. Oeuvre fire off some arrows and hit a stone giant twice.
The giants finally struck back with their greatclubs, hitting Ox twice and Mara once. Dale told another funny joke that made one of the stone giant attacking Ox fall down laughing. Mara missed twice with her longsword, and Loraine blinded one of the stone giants attacking Mara. Savir zapped the non-laughning giant attacking Ox with a pair of scorching rays, and both Ox and Oeuvre strike the giant twice with axe and bow respectively.
Ox was hit once more, and Mara was struck twice by the non-blind giant. Dale sang a healing song to revive Mara, and she struck a nasty blow across the giant's chest with her longsword. Loraine channeled some healing light. Savir hit Ox's stone giant twice more with scorching rays from his wand and dropped the stone giant. Ox then moved to help Mara, decapitating the one she so badly wounded (and stealing her kill!). He then cleaved his axe into the blind giant. Oeuvre the followed up with his bow, hitting the blind giant thrice and dropping it as well. Dale then finished off the laughing giant, who was too busy laughing to notice he was getting murdered. That must have been one funny joke!
ENTRY 7: Oeuvre picked up some ghostly howling sounds down a tunnel to the left and some heaving breathing down a tunnel to the right. Mara wanted to go after what was surely some kind of unholy undead, but the party persuaded her to take out the giant first since it sounded like it was sleeping.
The stone giant turned out to be awake, however, and female. She made gestures of peace and Dale chatted her up with the giant tongue. Dale said she was an ally and that she wanted us to come with her to another chamber nearby to talk more. He said he felt she was sincere in her offer to help. The others followed, with Ox and Oeuvre not taking their eyes off the stone giantess's chest.
She led them to an shrine with an altar and walls painted with images of giants, mammoths, ogres, humans, dwarves, and other creatures. A modest offering of animal parts had been piled up in front of the altar. This was the room where the undead noises were coming from.
Conna, the giantess, said that her husband Vandarrec was murdered in this cave by Mokmurian. She said that his angry spirit now haunts this cave, but that it remains calm in her presence. The other giants avoid this cave which make it a good place to talk. Conna also said that if they killed Mokmurian, the giant army would disband back into their old tribes and go their separate ways. She said that Mokmurian can be found in the library level below and that it was best to approach the stairs from the west rather than the north, directing them back the way they came and looping around the other direction.
Conna said that she feared that Mokmurian was under the influence of an ancient powerful spirit named Karzoug. Legends of her people tell how this Karzoug once enslaved her people long ago. The name Karzoug sounded familiar, so I checked my journal and found that the pit fiend at Skull's Crossing claimed to have been imprisoned there by Karzoug. This guy sure gets around!
ENTRY 8: Taking the route suggest by Conna, the party passed a tannery where nine ogre were busy working. They were too dumb to even notice Loraine clanking by in her armor. Stupid ogres! They should have just killed them all and put them out of their stupidity. Ox too.
ENTRY 9: After the tannery, they came across another workroom, this one a forge. Two stone giants oversaw nine dwarven prisoners who were forced to work from their cages. Savir would have none of this, and blasted one of the stone giants with a pair of scorching ray. Ox then charged in and struck the other one with his greataxe. Oeuvre followed up on the same giant as Ox, hitting him with one of his magic arrows that are especially deadly against giants.
The stone giants fought back, striking Ox and Savir with their greatclubs. Dale begins to sing an inspirational song as he closed in for melee. Loraine called upon Iomedae for a spectral longsword against Ox's stone giant as Mara fought against the other with her blade. Iomedae's blade cut a nasty gash in the stone giant's chest. Ox flanked with Dale and struck twice with his greataxe as Savir cowardly fell back from the fight. Oeuvre then finished off Ox's stone giant with his bow.
The remaining giant his Dale twice with his greatclub. Dale attempted to counterattack, but missed. Mara landed a blow with her longsword as Loraine channeled some healing light into her allies. Ox struck the giant twice more with his greataxe, and Savir followed up with several magical missiles before Oeuve finished off the second giant with his bow.
Mara talked to the dwarves in their own tongue to clam them down, and noticed that the giants had shaved their beards! They must have had some sick shaving fetish to do that. Don't get me wrong, I like shaving a pretty girl's feet as much as the next guy, but shaving short hairy men is just wrong.
Anyway, the dwarves offered to help, and Mara suggested they guard the exit since they probably weren't up for much of a fight. They still wanted to kill some giants (who wouldn't), but Dale smoothed things over, and Ox raised their spirits by sharing his booze! This proves it! Ox must be an imposter. The real Ox would never share his drink or hit anything in combat. He must be a spy for that Karzoug guy. I need to find a way to warn the others so they can kill him. I really wish I could do it myself. That further proves it! I would never want to kill the real Ox...oh wait!
Maybe he's not an imposter after all.
ENTRY 10: Beyond the forge was a tunnel whose walls were lined with furs. Oeuvre noticed that they were concealing holes, and that their were some giant-sized creatures lurking on the other side of the wall. He shot through one of the holes and struck the giant-creature thrice. Ox was going to pursue them, but got scared. Not going in didn't seem to help him out any as one of the giant figures tried to hit him with a ranseur from its hiding spot, but Ox managed to dodge somehow. Savir was attacked as well, but his assailant likewise missed.
Dale cast a spell that turned him invisible as he scouted ahead. Mara, unlike Ox, was brave enough to enter the side tunnels (the left one), and found the giant-creature to be a troll. She missed with her longsword. Loraine called upon Iomedae to grant her a favor. Oeuvre followed Mara into the side tunnel, but missed with his bow. Savir tossed a fireball into the tunnel on the right and scorched the two giant-creatures lurking their. Ox, realizing he was being more cowardly than a girl, finally entered the side tunnel to attack and hit the giant-creature twice.
Dale found a larger entrance down the way and entered the right tunnel from behind. Loraine moved to protect Savir as she entered the right tunnel. The two giant-creatures there were both trolls too. Mara struck the troll in the left tunnel twice with her longsword, one hit nearly taking off its arm.
The trolls fought back, hitting both Ox and Loraine, but Mara's armor protected her from them. Oeuvre struck twice with his bow, and one of his arrows took out the troll's eye. Savir then struck Loraine's troll with an acidic arrow as Ox hit the third troll twice with his greataxe. Dale then came at Ox's troll from behind, stabbing it through the chest with his longsword. Mara called a servant of Iomedae into her blade, and it erupted in flames. Loraine fell back a step from her troll and began summoning additional aid.
The trolls continued to fight back, and Mara, Ox, and Savir were all hit by them. Oeuvre struck twice more with his bow, taking the troll's other eye and dropping it to the ground. Ox hit his troll once as Savir used his wand to strike the other troll with a pair of scorching rays as his acid continued to burn. Dale missed with his longsword.
Three halfling-sized fire elementals answered Loraine's call, but only one of them was able to slam its fiery fist into the troll's backside. Loraine herself stabbed the troll through chest with the kobold's shortspear. Mara meanwhile made sure her troll stayed down with her flaming longsword.
Dale was hit by Ox's troll. Oeuvre maneuvered behind Ox and struck with his bow. Ox then followed up with his greataxe as Savir used another wand to blast Loraine's troll with some magic missiles. Dale fought back with another sneaky attack before falling back. Mara moved over to Loraine's side as she struck once more with her shortspear and dropped the troll. One of her elementals finished him off while the other two moved up to help Ox, but they both missed. The troll told Ox to surrender, but the big guy was too dumb to understand him in the giant tongue. Because of this, the troll then struck Ox twice, but Oeuvere dropped him with his bow and the elementals finished the troll off.
Loraine channeled moiré healing energy the healed mostly everybody, but Ox required additional healing from her wand. Ox then found a large bag of heavy but valuable ore, which Ox volunteers to carry around like a mule. Oeuvre even called him the jackass of the party.
ENTRY 11: After the gauntlet of trolls, the tunnel slopped down to an area of worked stone that was clearly Thasilonian in origins. Oeuvre estimated that they were now over 800 feet below the surface. The first chamber had no hard angles which gave it a disturbing, alien quality.
There were two corridors leading off from this chamber. The left one abruptly terminated in rubble, with a partially dugout tunnel that led nowhere. The right corridor led to another room with double doors on the far wall. This room was even weirder as the walls seem to distort and stretch. All save Loraine and Dale became violently sick as magic struck them, reducing Loraine and Oeuvre to halfling size. I wonder if it all put hair on Little Loraine's feet. Yum.
A hill giant covered in magic runes then burst through the doors. With the others two sick to act, Little Loraine summoned another celestial longsword to harass the giant and hit. Dale zapped him with an enfeebling ray from his wand. The giant then moved with surprising speed to attack. Little Loraine called upon Iomedae to dispel the magic enhancing the giant, but the magic was too strong for her. The celestial longsword struck him once more. Dale began an inspiring song.
The hill giant hit Little Loraine twice with his greatclub, which really hurt her. Little Loraine was forced to call upon Iomedae to grant her sanctuary. Dale, meanwhile, attacked the hill giant from behind. The hill giant ignored him and moved to attack Savir instead. Ox finally was able to shake his nausea and strike twice with his greataxe, decapitating the hill giant with the second hit.
Dale said the reduced person effect on Little Loraine and Wee Oeuvre would last 24 hours without magic intervention: they would be halflings for a day!
Little Loraine? Between Ox and this little freak, you sure can pick them girl.
Hush you!