Meet 156, Adv 16, 4/18/26

10:21 PM, Heatmonth the 17th. The number of goblins ahead of us was like a solid wall, racing towards us, stones and crossbow bolts flying. Stoneribs and Darius were a constant target , only their respective damage reduction and armor class kept them upright. Shim’s tick continued to drink from the Lothian Spider, Eoghan was shaking from the effects of the poison, and Wilhelm hit Connal with a jump spell.

A purple flame shot from a far roof, hitting Asher, and making the half elven cleric of Maglubiyat disappear. The entirety of that roof was outlined in purple flames, blocking any of us from seeing what was going on there as well as anyone up there getting free. Captain Asher was on his own for now.

More magic flew out and we rocked from the impact. As the next Demonbat tried to make a run for the group, Connal jumped up to the nearest roof and poured his anger at the bat there, getting a grip on its wing and scratched, but not poisoned. One of the Goblin/Demonics leapt down from the building and stalked for the party. Nate slid into the shadows, primordial dagger at the ready.

A fireball raced out from a spider rider, tearing across the back ranks of the party, killing Eoghan and Quiver, and hurting everyone else. The demonic stalked up and Nate struck from the shadows, primordial blade hitting. He got walloped back but stayed on. Darius was racing through his fight with the Spider to help out. The Demonbat and Connal continued to struggle on the roof as a huge spider crept up trying to bite.

More crossbows fired out as we fought on, the goblins were withering away in ones and twos but still they fought on. A Carrion Crawler was creeping up on the party and Shim hit it with a darkness spell. A spider rider from the nearby roof canceled it with a light spell. Eoghan returned and shot 3 arrows, the ranger looking even worse than before. Nate’s fight with the demonic was slowly leaching the color from him, hair and skin going white, eyes going black. Bits of his humanity slowly frittering away. He was struck and killed as Darius arrived, slamming into the Demonic.

We spread out and reshuffled the line, the last Demonic began its walk up the street. There was talk about Ghostbear hitting one of Wilhelm’s cats with a Giant Animal spell but we didn’t want to turn it into a target yet. Stoneribs took one of the goblins he was fighting and hurled it at the spider rider, making it rear up and hit the Lolthian Spider hard. One of Wilhelm’s cats died next as Nate returned – without healing anything this time! 1 hit point! He quickly chugged a healing potion as we doled out what healing we could, but our stores were diminishing.

The demonic went down, the reverberating blast ripping through Darius’ axe but the enchanted weapon remained whole if a bit more weathered. Carrion Crawler went down, Demonic Bat went down. Another fireball went off and Eoghan died AGAIN. We were down to scrolls and potions, Darius doing what he could to keep himself on the positive side of the hit point list.

With the second Demonic down and the number of spider riders fading, the goblins left began to lose their nerve but still fought on. Also, each of Helen’s children we slayed had a chance of alerting the Eternal Queen of their passing so we had to wrap this up. We redrew the line and pressed on. Poison was in our veins, most everyone was badly hurt and limping, The Planar Ally kept returning to the Umbra to ferry out recent dead back to the fight. By estimation, Stoneribs had been hit over 40 times and Darius the same. A Summoned Earth Elemental had the group groaning in fury as we turned to address the new threat.

More shots from the roof peppered the party, Rhygar got badly wounded, we limped onward, eyes on the far end of the 3rd Warren. We finally came to the last Demonic, Nate, Connal, and Darius took point. Eoghan was down to a handful or arrows, 2 quivers used up. Shim blocked the last spider rider’s vision with a globe of darkness. It tried to magic missile Darius but the knight used Spellcleave, shredding the 7 missiles before they hit.

The purple glow from the roof fell and 9 rounds after he disappeared, Captain Asher showed up covered in gore, looking more bestial than normal, but grinning in triumph, the power of Maglubiyat firmly in his grasp. “About damned time!” we called out as he clambered down from the roof.

The final fight was brutal and agonizing, everyone hitting as hard and as fast as they could until finally the last Demonic went down with a blast of hellfire. Fearing the worst, and assuming Helen was returning, we ran across the Warren as fast as we could, Ghostbear dropping a Wall of Force at the end of the Warren, blocking anyone from pursuing us for now as we ran into the large darkened corridor, the goblins lost behind us.

54 rounds of combat, 203 goblin warriors, 3 Demonic Goblins, 2 Demonbats, 12 Lolthain spiders, 6 huge spiders, 1 carrion crawler, 11 goblin shamen/spider riders, 1 rust monster, and 1 juggernaut later.

10:38 PM, Heatmonth the 17th. Most everyone badly wounded or died multiple times. But running on.

2nd Campaign, A1, Session 3. 4/15/26

Birthmonth the 7th, 1:25 AM. The party cycled their way across the beam slowly and with care, everyone holding on to the rope just in case. Progressively we moved heavier and heavier people across, the 2x12 beams flexing and groaning bad. Fjord was the last, but the half ogre was so big and oversized, that the beam snapped a bit over way across, dropping him. A mad scramble and he held the rope, and then inched his way across to the end by us. We reached out and helped pull him up. No way back across the pit that way, at least not easy anymore.

Once we were all good, we walked out of the room and to the passage there. Passage turned east, went about 30 feet, and then turned north, stairs going down. An alcove was about half way down on the left had side. The smell of vinegar was strong and there was a distant wet on wet sound. Hall way tight, 5’ wide, so we stayed together and checked out the alcove first.

3 barrels here, wood was darkly stained, barrels covered in dust. Vinegar smell was coming from here, but also elsewhere. We tested them, they were solid, full of a liquid. Old wine? Checking out the steps, they went down a floor to a 15’x15’ room. Wet sound smell of honey, flies. We looked with infravsion and could tell the back end of the room had something warm in it, lower to the ground, not body temperature, cooler.

We figured, let's kill 2 birds with one stone. Casting light on the barrel itself, Cara and Hrimvir picked up the barrel, brought it to the stairs, turned it on the side, and rolled it down. It bounced 3, 4, 5 times as it rolled and fell, gathering momentum and speed, before the staves broke and it crashed into the room, spilling 40 gallons of vinegar/wine everywhere.

A 6’ diameter, 4’ tall mound of tarry rags was down there, wet and slimy, tendrils and fronds and tentacles all around the perimeter of it. It flailed about, picking up wood and jamming it underneath, while other tentacles sloshed the vinegar away. The liquid was draining through cracks in the floor. It was Atlas who figured out the creature first: a giant sundew. A carnivorous plant that could pull itself along if need be in search of prey, catching it with its tendrils and suffocating them to death before devouring them. Cara knew of normal types, but this was a monster, very distantly related to the smaller benign ones found in nature.

We had to get past it (there was a door down there). Using the auger, we drilled a hole in another barrel, and Rhareli doused his rag mittens with the vinegar. We all drew up in the hall and Fjord went first, down the steps flaming sword leading the way. The sundew responded, slapping the half ogre with half a dozen tendrils, 3 of which hit, stinging as they slapped and then wrapping around the offending limbs. One was unlucky enough to hit the ogre in the face, around his neck, mouth, and nose – starting to suffocate him.

The rest of us raced in, weapons flashing. Hrimvir learned his mace was ineffective (bludgeoning), but slashing and piercing seemed to be effective. Cara, Ply, Yandr, Carl, Hrimvir poured in, hitting and slamming. The Sundew was tough. Fjord was pulled forward and off hit feet, face first into the sundew – and the tentacles were now burning him with acid. Hrimvir struggled to pull his flaming sword free, swapping to it.

Ply was hit next, the giant rat lifted up and dragged to the Sundew. We poured on the fight as Fjord slumped and stopped breathing, suffocated and at 0. Atlas shot 2 magic missiles, burning the damned plant. But it was still hanging on. Rhareli and Gun were on the steps with crossbows. It was tough shot, into an active grappling melee, and a bad shot would hit Fjord. But they discussed it and not taking the shot was worst. So the gnome pulled back, took aim…and fired.

1.

Shooting the half ogre in the back and dropping him to -6. “Damn it!” Tentacles hit Cara, wrapping around the druid as Ply was pulled to the Sundew next to be devoured.

Its ok, its ok, we have potions, and Carl could help out. But we have to get the thing killed and now. So Gun took aim, same difficulty, and let his crossbow bolt fly.

1.

Shooting Fjord in the back of the neck and out the front of his lower face – dropping Fjord to -12. And dead. “I..well, damn it.”

We poured the fight on and killed the Sundew but damage done. We used the vinegar to weaken the glue and eventually got everyone free. Some healing was given, Fjord was very dead. We know that Father Falder said he could try and raise him, Uller has that power, but it would be 3,000 crowns. We talked about getting out of here, the pit room was uncrossable and we had 500 lbs to drag.

Thobar offered to drag Fjord for the group, outside of him normal duties, for 50 crowns – keeping the groups strongest free to fight on as he pulled the half ogre home (moving very slow, but possible). We agreed, giving him the money (and an additional 10) from Fjord’s own pouch. The half ogre had a number of gems on him, and it should be enough to raise him from the dead. We just have to get out of here.

While we were going through his belongings and divvying them out, two of us used spears and lifted the Sundew. Bones, roots, thick glue, and coins – hundreds of them. We used more vinegar to dissolve it, took the gold, silver, and copper, 3 rubies, and a silver and black striped ring with the roman numeral 3 on it – still with a finger (bone) within.

We took it and figured we’d figure it out later. It was 2:30 and we figured, time to get out. Gun was sure we had to go north to get to the exit, and the door out of here were north. Listening to it twice, we figured it was safe enough. So we opened and looked. Passage went north as far as the lantern light showed, side passage to the east about 20’ down. There was also an eastern run 15’ to a door. Using Gun’s map, we went north, dragging Fjord behind.

It was slow going but after 70, 80’ feet (this area also seemed to be actually more used – repaired, clean, not ruined, came to the corner, passage went west. Could smell fresh air. Almost out? Yandr looked for evil, he got 6 orcish pings west and north, and 2 graveyard dirt and rotting meat – ghouls, west and south.

We opted north – have to be almost free. We set up for most of us to take the orcs out first and fast. Looking down the passage, 25’ to 2 sets of double doors. South ones were very nice, had the motif of Gruumsh on them. Most likely led to the cathedral’s original private cemetery. North double doors were shitty, thin, and bad shape. Hrimvir was first, mace out, ready to kick ass. He kicked the door in and yelled at the orcs to “drop or be killed!”

The orcs, 6 of them, were young, between 10 and 13. They had leather shirts on, held halberds that were falling apart, and were terrified. They had hammered and nailed up over 40 random holy symbols all over the room. 3 of them pissed themselves. One passed out. Yandr smashed one who was trying to escape out the outer doors north of this room, and Cara got the other, flattening his nose and face on the door and knocking him out.

They were young orcs, swayed by the promise of a better orcish society, preached by Karraway, a member of the guild here (Syndicate). The talkative one, Jessi, let us know they were on guard here in the wood cutter’s shed and to not go into the grounds between 3 and 5 – ghouls hunt during that time. After that, from 5:30 to 7ish, Karraway might have business here or somewhere else. The eastern side of the temple is where he is. They just don’t want to die and are frightened of undead. There are older orcish guards, still teens, they have stable duty.

We gave them the chance to get us out of here and we’d let them go, but they cannot come back to work here. Fiine – all good. The lock on the gate is a pin lock – pull it one to unlock it, Snap it and its closed again. We readied ourselves, Jessi reminded us that Karraway sometimes has people on the east side watching so we’d have to be fast and use moonlight only. We opened the door and ran across the grounds, 45’ to the gate. Once there Jessi opened it and we all spilled into the streets. The gate was closed, chain wrapped lock in place…and the orcish kids had already run, terrified of us. We left the front of the temple, trudging east along temple Way until we finally arrived back at the Temple of Uller.

We dragged Fjord to the front near the altar, then the rest of us made our way to the cells where we stripped off our armor and fell asleep at 3:45 AM on Birthmonth the 7th. We awoke, sore, tired, and humbled a bit after noon. We doled out some healing, and made our way to the main temple where Father Falder and Brother Ostant was there. They had already stripped Fjord down to his skin, folded and cleaned and organized all his gear, and had two choices – embalming and wraps for burial, or markings and oils and candles for raising.

We talked about what Fjord might want and figured he’d like the chance to come back. So we gave Father Falder all of Fjord’s gems and watched as the priest cast the 10 minute ritual, the gems slowly dissolving away as Uller took his offering. At the height of the spell, energy coursed down and into Fjord, making him jump and float off the ground.

(Resurrection survival chance 75%.) Dice roll…76%

He glowed, opened his eye, and then it seemed that Hel took hold of him and pulled him violently back down. Spell ended – and Fjord as still dead. “Garl..damn it!” Rhareli cursed, fishing around inside his pants by his nuts and storming away mad. Without another 3,000 crowns, we bid our farewell to Fjord. Brailance was going to the grounds to dig a grave for the fallen half ogre. We took his stuff and thought about the fact we were down one. Father Falder let us know that other members of SEGA were in the city and he would contact them to see if anyone wanted to risk joining the group in the quest to take down the Syndicate.

We still had the box to open, but sort of forgot about it. As for the ring, Atlas took another look at it. He was convinced it was a ring of spell storing…and it had 3 spells in it (hence the “3” on the outside). But he would need to try it on to see what they were. So he held it over his finger and pressed.

His ego was not strong enough to overwhelm the ring’s internal personality. There was a struggle and a combat of wills. The ring manifested itself the same as Atlas was, and the two mages struggled for mental dominance, stabbing at one another again and again. It was almost 10 minutes of hard struggle before Atlas put the ring’s presence in its place and showed his mastery.

Sliding the ring entirely on his finger. To the rest of us, it was only a strange 3 second pause. The ring was now Atlas’ and could not be removed until and upon his death. But it could any 3 spells – right now it had Friends, Shatter, and Jump. Nice!

We wanted to go back but wanted to wait for nightfall. It was here that we learned that a family in the Middle Class section of town was torn apart during the early morning hours. At first the thought was it was a wild animal, but Lord Keleborn’s people revealed that it was an undead. A ghoul or similar, who tore apart the family of 4 (father, mother, and 2 teenaged children). They had gone to the few temples still standing and Father Falder and the others gave the few precious holy water vials they had. A drop would cause the ghouls to burn and hopefully drive them away. A curfew was set up for tonight, everyone off the streets between 7:30 PM and 6:30 AM. Patrols were being tripled.

Yandr could NOT keep the judging look off his face and promised to talk to the group about this after he had a chance to digest it.

Eventually it was closer to 8. We were given lengths of Fjord’s underwear to use as rags and left the Temple of Uller. We went down to the main cross street, snuck to the back of the temple of Thrym, and donned the rags before walking the trench of filth again. 450 feet later, dirty, we came to the hole in the wall. Climbing to the grounds we dropped these rags by our earlier rags and proceeded west to the end of the temple there.

The secret door was still closed and locked and no one was here. We walked north, hand on the wall, keeping quiet and silent. About 2/3rds of the way north, we came to an over sized set of double stable doors. The stables was here. It was quiet on the other side, Yandr did a detect evil. He got 5 instances – 4 of them that were decidedly orcish, and one that was strange, liquid…like mercury.

WTF?

We decided after talking about it to go north to the woodcutter cottage section and enter that way. The assumption was that the young orcs were gone and we should be able to enter there without issue. So we crawled on to the north end of the building, looked over, and Yandr assured us there was no evil pings inside the double doors of the stonecutter’s shed. Birthmonth the 7th, 8:50 PM.

Meet 155, Adv 16, 4/11/26

The majority of the group smashed through the last of the few goblins as fast as they could while the spider and riders on the ceiling of the first warren crept ever closer. The stairs down to the 2nd warren were choked with slingers who sent off volleys of bullets at the group, peppering Darius and Geronimo continuously. Shim fired off a summon spell, getting a barbaric elf to help out. Ghostbear wanted to get us into the 2nd Warren so he could drop the Wall of fire and plug up the area with a wall of ice. Wilhelm’s cats ripped another 2 goblins to shreds and then Nate finished off the straggler. The rider there hit Ghostbear with a darkness spell, slowing the medicine man down. Shim had Rita (the elf) guide Ghostbear backwards to the edge of the darkness.

From the Overwatch, Stoneribs and Connal were hard on the goblins up there, the native hero taking one of them and hurling it at the closest spider rider, killing it, the spider, and cracking the roof. The other rider called out some benediction and a 7’ column of animated flame hit the overwatch, attacking Connal! The monk was forced to hit and fade as the elemental burned and slapped at him.

We were clearing the stairs, Geronimo making another jump to land in the mass of goblins there, Darius racing up and overrunning a bunch as well. The Rider there called out, and a 7’ tall earth elemental made of stone, rock, and wood appeared and blasted Shim, the gnome taking a good solid hit. He called out to Rita to run over and help him out while the group ran down the steps.

Meanwhile, the juggernaut was now up and running, smoke and magic coming from within. It moved slow for now but was picking up speed. The 5 goblins here all ganged up on Stoneribs, grappling the hero enough to force him away from the lynch pin to release the gate. Connal risked a step and hit to place himself there, the fire elemental following. The monk was getting burned bad.

Dropping the wall of fire, Ghostbear called to the ancestors and a wall of ice so thick it acted like a plug filled the air here and interposed itself between the elemental and us, shoving it back 25’. We were safe from the 1st Warren for now for about 3 hours. More spells and bullets hit us. Geronimo leapt to the nearest roof and took the fight to the Spider rider there and the Lolthian Spider. The juggernaut was getting closer and picking up speed.

From above one of the goblins dropped free and tried to get to the pin but Connal got in the way and grabbed the greenskin, holding it like a shield as the fire elemental attacked, burning it bad. Stoneribs managed to kill one of the grapplers.

The goblins around us were fading but still doing damage. But the juggernaut’s approach meant we had limited room and it was shrinking quick. Wilhlem was forced to give ground as Darius stepped up. The vehicle hit the knight, smashing him for 30 points of damage and driving him to the group as 5,000 lbs ran him over. The druid called out to Shakak and poured a heat metal spell into the juggernaut, hoping to cook the goblins within. Shim hit it with a knock spell, unlocking the hatchways in the back.

Connal and Stoneribs were down to a few goblins left and the very weakened fire elemental. Another goblin died before the hero was free again and then the two of them finished the fight with a rousing crescendo.

The group mopped up the last goblins near them as the goblins inside the Juggernaut finally succumbed, burning to death. Geronimo leapt off the roof, hitting the machine, knocking it askew so that its final roll would miss the party. We all gathered and ran for the last warren as the goblin chanting came to an end. They no longer felt overwhelmingly ahead of the party.

The last warren had a mass of goblins ready for us, riders, lolthian spiders, a few demonic bats, some half breed goblin/demons, most of the goblins were better armed and armored, and there were plenty of spiders and even a damned rust monster. Damn.

We figured to hit the lead early and somehow convinced Geronimo to jump into the mess near the rust monster and spider there. He did not want to, citing he would be very far away from the group and surrounded, could not jump back. But the pressure was strong and he did, and less than a minute later, was killed. Stoneribs was silent and fuming, quietly killing goblins near him but no longer trusting of the party. And Ghostbear said nothing, the medicine man just observing the battle and figuring the best way his diminishing number of spells could help.

The enemy surged forward and Darius tried to set himself near one of the riders, where he had his throat hit, preventing any further spell casting. One of the Demon bats dove at the group, poisoned claws hitting, Connal jumped on top of it and drove it lower to the ground, Wilhelm summoned a hippogriff, and the party tore it apart. One of the Demonic goblins came next, serrated sword and poisoned gauntlet on its hand. Nate’s primodial dagger stuck true, healing the fighter thief and also giving him enough surges to strike again.

But the number of goblins ahead of us was huge and we still had many to wade through. Heatmonth 17th , 10:21 PM. Third Warren – Helen Back still not here.

2nd Campaign, A1, Session 2. 4/8/26

Birthmonth the 6th, 8 AM, we talked at length about what our next actions were going to be. We wanted to wait for nightfall, stay out of town, and kept to the temple grounds for now. We rested during the day to make sure we were able to adventure late into the night and after getting Father Falder to add a few more rags from the donation bin, we let the clock run out.

By the 10 PM call from the docks, we snuck out of the Temple of Uller grounds and made our way westward to the main avenue. From here we took it to the back of Temple Row, hid in the collective ruins and underbrush there, and donned our rags on our feet. We wanted to let the lighter party members go first through the waste culvert, even though it was not full, the bottom had a sludge mix in it that was going to get churned up as we walked along.

It was 20 after 10 by the time we arrived at the collapsed wall behind the Temple of Gruumsh. Rhareli and Gun gave the area beyond a thumbs up and the party crawled through the 2’ tall gap to the back of the temple grounds. We unlaced and let drop the many numerous fouled up rags here and crept up to the back of the temple itself, 30 or 40 feet from the back wall.

It took us 10 minutes to find the marked cross stones that Father Falder indicated would be the secret door. We took out the copy of the key, tried it, and it would not turn. Fjord was convinced it was because the interior of the lock was crudded up and hadn’t been used for 4 years. We spent some time scrubbing and oiling the inner workings before finally the door was unlocked. After that it took some strength to force the thick door open.

There was a passage here, set in the wall of the temple itself. 10’ tall, 10’ long, 5’ wide. Ended at a door on the other side poorly disguised from this side. Fjord checked it for traps, we could faintly see light through the edges of the door. Gun volunteered to open it. The halfling opened the door, but did not notice the pin and rope trigger, which dropped the heavy beam covered in nails, spikes, glass, and other sharp objects at an angle down to slam into the assassin, dropping him with some pain.

“Damn it, Fjord!”

“Brian! I must have missed that!”

“You get the next damn doors, boy.”

As we were looking about (long hall, left and right, door at the end of the left end running north), we realized that in the garden area we had made a very obvious trail in the mud and paths of us coming here and this way. We could spend some time trying to obscure it, or we opted instead to have half a dozen of us stomp all over the ground, disguising our path and trail to the secret door.

We entered, closed both doors but did NOT lock the outer door (in case we needed a fast escape), and followed the passage west to the door there. In order, Fjord looked for traps, opened the door which squeaked very bad, listened, heard nothing, and then shut the door which also, squeaked very bad. “All clear,” he said as the group just looked at him in wonderment.

It was about 5 after 11 and we opted to check out the hall behind us first. It circled to the north and ended with some crumbly grey small piles of grit on the floor and a door on the east wall. We looked first for secret doors (finding none), and then decided to open with care. 20 x 15 room, the room had been victim of a fire a few years ago, and the east wall showed signs of being repaired – but not with wood and plaster, but with block and mortar. That’s what the grey gritty stuff was. Not sure, but we guessed the repair was over a year and less than 2 old.

Yandr did a short detection of evil and got 2 pings through the east wall – spicy cinnamon and rock dust. We talked at length about taking the wall down but we decided against that action for now. We returned to the long hall and went on to the far door, opening it showed a long hall – 50’ long. We guessed we were along the outer western edge of the temple. Yandr assumed back here it would be passages and rooms for the priests when the place was active. Right now the passage was formerly fire scarred and the plaster in poor repair.

At the end of the hall, the passage turned east and 5’ ended at a door. Some of the slats were missing but the door was forced and melted in some place, stuck fast where it was. While Gun was checking it out, could see a room past here, open to the sky as the 2nd floor had collapsed on the 1st, a scabrous grey hand and arm shot through the gaps in the door and tried to grab the halfling who dodged out of the way. It spat and snarled, and there were 3 arms before they threaded back and grew quiet again. “This is turning into bullshit,” Gun muttered, moving back a few ranks from the front of the party.

Reshuffling the line, Carl, who had a great hate for anything not…human, took point. Hrimvir and Rhareli lined up behind with Yandr up there if something went wrong. Cara shot off a globe of light into the room, attracting the ghouls who attacked it. Then a Combine spell went off and the combined clerical energy flowed into Carl who…TURNED with the strength of Odin – a wave of white yellow light poured through the door – and 6 of the 8 ghouls there were consumed from within by Odin’ holy light and were destroyed.

2 Ghouls and 2 Ghasts (who had held back) then tried to get to the group but the door was stopping them. The party was reshuffling the line when the Ghasts ordered the ghouls to pick up some of the heavy masonry and CHARGE the door. Splintering the wood. “Damn! They can DO that?!?”

And then they hit again and were in the hall. Yandr was in the front and the paladin’s aura of courage prevented the undead from keeping enough of a contact with him to paralyze him. But it was touch and go. One of them LEAPT forward, running into the hall behind. Combat ensued and the ghoul was having a hard time hitting as the paladin’ presence made direct touch difficult. Eventually it died and Hrimvir called to Thrym, causing a spiritual hammer to appear and fly about.

At the front with 2 ghasts, the smell was making everyone sick (-2 on all rolls), Carl turned again, and this time 1 of the ghasts turned and fled. The last was beating the paladin with lengths of broken stone. Spiritual Hammer slammed out hitting. It was not stupid, so it turned and ran, just a bit ahead of the attacks as its back. It scrambled up the wall and OUT the hole in the roof.

We all ran into the room, Yandr climbing the walls and watching it run across the temple grounds to the east and leap off the side of the building into the night.

We came down, healing was dispensed, we looked over the room for treasures (finding an iron box we could not open as the cover was caved in but we would try tomorrow), and Yandr let us know that we have allowed 2 ghasts to escape the temple grounds and were now in the Streets of Highport – this was our fault ultimately and we should take eventual pains to correct it.

The door on the other side of the room was nailed in place. We popped the hinges and Hrimvir used his saw to cut the spars of wood nailed to the frame from the other side away. 12:30 AM, Birthmonth the 7th. We pressed on.

After a short run, the passage turned north. There was a side cut and set of stairs going up, and a parallel passage heading to an alcove. No one trusted it. “Well, go on boy,” Gun offered to Fjord, the Half-ogre making a quiet Brian noise. Someone gave him the door we had removed to the Ghoul room and he used it as a shield as he inched down the hall, checking everywhere for traps or dangers. There were none.

Exhausted, we reconvened and then went to the stairs heading up. Room was long, 30’ by 20. There was a pit in the middle of the room, taking most of the floor. The floor had burned out down to the 1st floor and THAT floor had burned out down to the basement. 30’ down to broken spars and busted stones. The left side had about a foot of jagged burned floor, the right side was 3 times that width and solid seeming, and the middle had some fallen 2 x 12’s spanning the pit itself. We looked everywhere and talked about passage for a while.

We settled on Fjord crossing the east side, figuring if the half ogre can make it, we all can. Tied a rope to him and before he went, changed our mind. Instead Rhareli took it, rope tied to the gnome. Atlas had a feather fall spell ready and we watched as the gnome stayed near the wall. About 20’ across the floor under him shifted and a 20’ section of floor AND wall fell free with the gnome, dropping all of them down into the pit, the rope he was tied to cutting and splitting as he fell.

When the last of the falling beams echoed away, we could hear the gnome groaning below. He dug himself out of the busted garbage, gave a thumbs up, and crept to the other side. Once there, he climbed the wall to the top and then the other side of the room.

He could smell vinegar from here, and there was some distant wet on wet sound (like mayo). Taking a piton and hammer, he drove a spike here and then tied one end of the rope to it. Not liking being here alone, he crawled back across the middle of the pit, staying on the wooden beams, and rejoined the group.

We then drove another piton here and tied the rope to this one as well. Now, if the wood broke, the rope would span the pit and whoever was crossing could stop their fall. Hrimvir called to Thrym and fired off a light spell as far as he could across the way. It was interrupted by a wall just beyond the opening on the other side of the room. But illuminated everything. Cara crossed next, smelling the vinegar and hearing the wet on wet mayo sound. 1:25 Am, Birthmonth the 7th.

Meet 154, Adv 16, 4/4/26

The goal was to rely on Ghostbear’s Planar Ally spell to alert us when Helen Back left the area. The hope was it would occur after we all had a chance to rest and get our spells back. So we arranged watches, hid in the back apartment, and let the clock tick forward from 10:15 on Heatmonth the 17th.

By the time 2:30 came, Wilhelm had awakened and worked on doling out some healing to the worst of us. By 6:30 the rest of us followed suit and spells were visited as well as plans. Shim was disparaging to Ghostbear again and again, the powerful medicine man brooked no bullshit from the gnome. We ate, shuffled our things around, and went over plans. We hoped to get the over sized gargoyle free – but we needed to break the column the chain was mounted into. That was going to be Wilhelm’s piece.

A number of us were invisible and Ghostbear was going to Camouflage the area again – giving the group a good hide until combat ensued. Order of operations? Spider riders first, mages, and then blast through to the next area. Connal and Stoneribs were going to go first, walking on the walls and once the gargoyle was free, then run off to take care of the Overwatch. We were going to give them 10 minutes after they left and then start our run – Wilhlem blasts the column, the 4 big fighters hit the street, and then the rest of the group follows.

At 9 PM, the Planar Ally arrived and let Ghostbear know that Helen Back opened a portal to the plane of Fire and stepped through. Our clock started soon and now. We all shared what we needed, finalized the plan, and Connal and Stoneribs left, heading for the roof. They opened the trap door easily, closing it behind them. There were a few spiders on nearby roofs, but we should be ok. They stepped to the back of the cave, held hands, and stepped onto the wall. From there they went east till they were nearby and over the Cathedral. They could see a group of mages and others, one of them with the purple flames on the fire – we wanted to stay away for now – 60’.

Darius, Geronimo, Rhygar, and Captain Asher went down to the first floor, quiet and waiting. Wihelm crept to the edge, took aim, and called to Shakak, shooting off an 80’ line of blue and black crumbling energy. It hit the column with a SPAK noise, stone dust fell and it shook – but remained whole. The Gargoyle looked down, held the chain, but waited. The goblins were all looking around, some of them scouting back the way the crumble came from…When Wilhelm fired again.

A second blast shot off, the column shook – and this time the top cracked enough. The Gargoyle grabbed the chain, flexed its wings, and lifted – pulling hard – tearing the chain free and causing those nearby to freak out. The masses were pointing to the building and Wilhelm grabbed the druid, pulling him back as sling stones slammed into the 3rd floor, forcing them to stay down. A few clipped them but that was it.

Geronimo and Darius high tailed it out, came to the closest spider rider and mage and hit hard, severing the goblin wizard’s left ear and killing it, driving the enchanted axe into the body of the spider. Combat ensued. Goblins nearby were hit, split, and killed, the two of them clearing the closest area free. Bullets flew, the two of them took a beating but spread out, waving their hand they pointed east.

The bulk of the party had followed, hitting the street in a mass, the 4 cats, 2 dogs taking on the loose goblins nearby, 3 or 4 on 1 ripping goblins down. Nate and Wilhelm threw their AC to the wind and hit the ground floor running. Good thing too because the goblin mage down the way shot off a fireball, consuming the 3rd floor where Wilhelm had been standing earlier when he fired off his 2 crumbles. The flames shook the buildings but the group was far enough below them that they had nothing to worry about.

With the mages stepping forward, Stoneribs and Connal risked hitting the steps and running to the 2nd Warren, sighting the Overwatch. At least 2 spider riders were here. They were going to have to just go for it – time to target – 3 minutes. Geronimo was taking out 3 goblins at a time, Darius doing similar – the 2 of them leading the group down the road, the gargoyle flying towards them, heavy chain swinging through the street, smashing goblins along the way while 3..2…1 brave greenskin tried to climb to the gargoyle itself.

Captain Asher hit a nearby Lolthian Spider, Dawnblade ripping into the creature – he got bit in return, poisoned but stayed upright, Lexi and Quiver corralling the closest, ripping them apart. Nate was there, trident stabbing, acting as a bulwark for the party to run behind, hugging the building as more bullets flew.

GERONIMO! Came the cry as the native hero leaped 30’ into a mass of goblins, and whirlwind attacked the mass of them – felling 6 and leaving 1 still standing but hurt bad. A hold person spell hit Geronimo and bounced off. Ghostbear, seeing the mass of the goblins from First Warren coming to get us, chanted a bit, shook his medicine bag, and a 70’ wide, 30’ tall , 5’ deep flaming wall burst into being and stretched across the Warren, consuming 7 goblins in the path and stopping the rest from coming from behind.

Magic Missiles flew, Arrows were returned, hit points slowly faded away. The mass of the group was at the end of the 1st Warren when Stoneribs and Connal, now detected, made it to the Overwatch, hitting the 11 goblins up there in a flurry of ferocious attacks. Stoneribs grabbed one goblin and killed three others with its body while Connal flurry of blows a bunch others. Magic Missiles followed and the 2 heroes grunted from the attack but kept on.

Darius threw his AC to the wind and hit the front of the fight with a devastating trio of attacks on the goblins there. Geronimo leapt again, smashing into another mass of goblins. The group was closing in and the number of goblins here were fading. We could hear fighting in the next warren and had to get there and soon. Ghostbear was walking the wall of fire behind him, keeping the goblins back there still at bay. But, 2 of them, giant spiders, one with a rider, had climbed up and over the wall, perched on the ceiling and were targeting the group. Shim shot off a magic missile but the spider rider’s shield spell stopped the missiles. And then it shot a fireball down, hitting half the group. We were hurt and burned, but still up and fighting.

From the Warren, one of the spider riders had shot off a Hellfire Transport, and portaled half a dozen or more goblins up to the Overwatch, hitting, beating, and attacking Stoneribs and Connal. The monk was forced to use some of his monastic skills to ignore the damage taken but they needed to clear the area and soon.

9:53 PM, Heatmonth the 17th, rolling into round 12. Hurt but still going on.