Meet 129, Adv 15, 7/12/25

Plantmonth the 21st, 10:30 AM, 239 of the 29th age. With little other options on where to go, we knew we were going to have to risk passing the Feyr. With its psionic abilities, as well as the difficulty any of us had risking to get past, we were not sure it was going to work. We had gathered together near the area and figured that we could try using Asher’s Protection from Chaos spell to get a few of us past it. So it was volunteered that Darius and Asher would be the two in question. A light spell was cast upon a rock and the two of them went down the hall.

Where they looked left and saw…the room was empty. But they could still feel a presence there. Ideas were tossed out, fairie fire, lightning bolts, just rush in. Eventually we all came down the hall and THEN – we could hear the Feyr in our heads. It was not liking the light and was going to kill Darius for bringing it in. A look around – it was invisible for sure, and we convinced Darius to ditch the stone.

Eventually the Protection spell ended and now everyone can hear the Feyr. It reiterated its statement earlier, if they could get the Githyanki to move, it would allow them to pass. We could not pass to go make that happen, wrapping us around again and again. It was willing to bargain. Bleed out (permanent hit point loss), denaturing (reduction of ability scores), other ideas. Nothing seemed like anything we’d want to do – since all 9 of us would have to do it.

Then it was asked, what about if we can’t go past you…what if you move us instead. It seemed to smile. That was a possibility. The last thing offered was taking 5 years of someone’s life. Captain Asher was willing to do it when Shim stepped in. The Feyr identified Shim as a gnome and said 5 years was not equitable; how about 10?

Shim took the deal, had 10 years taken from his life, and the entire party portalled to the other side of the room and past the Feyr.

We spent 10 years trimming the dead skin, fingernails, facial hair, and head hair from Shim. Around 20 to 12 and we kept going, wondering what we’d have to do to pass the Feyr when we left? The passage went for a bit and there were dragonflies. Lots and lots of dragonflies. Wilhelm stepped up and after checking it out, confirmed that outside of the incongruity of they’re being here – they were just normal dragonflies. We stepped past with care not to kill or crush any and then saw a light up ahead.

Silvery and solid, we closed and looked in. It appeared a portion of the life tree had once had a root running from the left side of the room, up along the ceiling, and then down the right side, disappearing into the clay soil. The root had some cracks in it where silver sap was collecting, making small drops and eventually falling away to the ground – making a line of silver sap below. And it was all glowing.

Briefly we thought about tasting it – that was discarded. Shim wanted to collect some and NOT touch it. So he used tongs and a vial, got some drops in it, and sealed it up. We did press a rock into the sap – but other than getting silvery light sap on it – nothing. And again – we still have not actually touched the sap.

We all ducked low and passed on, getting down the hall to eventually a hole in the ground running almost straight down, just under 4’ wide. We tried the light coin on the cord trick but it was inconclusive after 40’. A slope down there but the cord and coin weren’t heavy enough. So we tried it with a spike and did the test again. Lots of back and forth – but we did gather, 40’ down, then another 80’ in run down some slope, then another steeper drop that used the entirety of the cord (200’). Godrick stopped to study Levitate and the rest of us refilled lantern and ate. Eventually a bit after 2, we were ready.

3 of us went down first – Wilhelm as a raven along with Shim riding Connal. Once there, the monk used a shovel to dig a flat area, throwing the clay ahead and down the slope. He then checked out the long drop at the end of the slope and went back to the top of the slope. From there the party was lowered one at a time. Once everyone was painstakingly lowered to the sloped area, we lashed each person to the rope and lowered them down the 90’ to the 7th level below. There was a breeze here.

It was about 5 PM at this point and we were getting winded. 2 choices – towards the blowing wind our away from it. We decided to head with the wind. Passage went for 35, 40 paces and eventually turned to the north. Saw a long hallway with increasing light, and wind was rising up. Hole in the space? Was this the wrinkle? Shim used the Desmondian Diamond and no, it was pointing south and east.

No one wanted to risk the hall. So Shim dropped a summon and got a trio of giant rats. He spoke with them and convinced them to go down the windy corridor. They did so, slow steps. Each step looked like it catapulted them forwards 15, 20’! They were struggling to keep going but one of them made a 3rd step – and winked out of existence!

Nope. Fuck this hall.

We opted to go back the other way and head east. Passage eventually drifted southeast and we could smell something up ahead. Spices? And then a voice said in heavily accented Common, “I told you I heard a Prime. You owe me 3 drachmas.” Who the hell? “Come forward. Might as well be civilized about this.”

We inched along until we could see. The chamber had been extended up and down. 3 larger buildings made of some sort of grey clay bricks were here. A fire was burning in a half moon open side oven and around it were 3 figures. They were just about 6’ or so tall. Their skin was rough yellow and they had gleaming black eyes. Two of them were clad in some spectral looking chainmail hauberks, the one with the orange cloak and eyepatch had a two handed sword, the other with numerous beads in its black hair had a scythe. The last was wearing a set of platemail and also sported a two handed sword, except his was made of silver. All their accoutrements had a faint glow about them. The platemail wearing one lifted a pipe to the group and said, “I am Spak’thar of the M’Lar Githyanki. These are M’Nar and Fett’nur. What are you Primes doing here?”

We talked. They were Githyanki. They had come 3 years ago following a distress call from a Neogi party. Upon arrival, the elder Neogi were dying and their machinery were breaking down in the oxygen rich atmosphere. They did trade with them and left before their eggs and next generation hatched. Since then, they’ve set up shop here and have been siphoning the residual divine energy from the soil to bring back to the M’Lar clan.

They figured that Primes would eventually show up and when that day came, he and his 2 would leave. He can kill you all off, but wants to give them a pass if they are willing to help he and his 2 companions load up their wares. Oh, and give them any and all silver coins they have on them. We discussed it and decided…go for it.

They were chatty and yet focused. There was a Prime that comes down, at least 8 or 9 times since they’ve been here. He cords down. “Cords?” Apparently he projects himself here and leaves his body elsewhere. He’s been bringing dead bodies it seems. Also, that long hall with the light? There is a time rip there – supposedly a time crystal is at the end of the passage…very difficult to get.

Did let us know about a room of inverted gravity ahead and then another with lots of dead plants. After that was the Wrinkle. They thanked us, and by 6:30, dimension doored away from here and we assume to the Wrinkle, taking their crates with them. We did have a day of food here and some water, plus beds and a place to sleep the night.

We were up on Plantmonth the 22nd and were gone by 8:30 PM. Taking the passage we walked slowly, tossing an odd stone ahead and watching to make sure it landed. Eventually at one point..it didn’t – it instead flew up to the ceiling 15 up. We found the edge of the field and then used a rope, held on this side and tossed ahead. It flew up to the ceiling and we all took turns climbing up/down and then reorienting ourselves on the ceiling above. Finally once finished, we began to walk along, once more tossing a stone ahead as we went to find the end of the field.

It was well over 100’ away where the zone ended and the rock fell to the group above our head. We did the rope trick again and cycled one at a time to the ground. From here we pressed on. Passage split Northeast and southwest. A look at the Diamond showed it pointing south. Northeast had a variety of green weed plants ahead, southwest had rotting dead vegetation. We went along for a bit and then came to a large chamber with dead plant matter almost a foot and a half in some places.

Shim summoned a monster and had it enter the room (another barbaric elf). She went in slow and then the ground in front of her rose up, slammed her with two oversized hands, and then choked her to death. It was 9’ in height, bipedal and cone like, made entirely of ropy vines and dirt and plants. It roared and surged towards us as we gathered our weapons ready to fight the…shambling…mound. Plantmonth the 22nd, 239 of the 29th age, 10:15 AM.

2nd Campaign, Session 13. 7/8/25

Officially halfway through. I promised 26 meetings, and we deliver. What I like about this adventure is that it is inherently implied in multiple places that you are not expected to do the adventure in a single fell swoop. You are supposed to return to Guido's Fort often (until you cannot any longer). The fact I have them doing the adventure in the winter just adds another wrinkle to the logistics of it.

As always, D&D is a resource management game. Time, hp, food, encumbrance, ammo...everything. Write up follows:

Icemonth the 11th, 11:45 AM. Our presence was upsetting the piranha birds but we wanted to wait for whatever was behind the door to either move on or calm down. Finally after 10 minutes listening to them squawk and try to get us through the iron mesh, we snuck back to the secret door and listened (heard nothing) before opening it up.

All good and quiet. We went north to the end of the hall, and checked both ways. Right was a 10’ run to the door to the piranha birds – it was a dutch door, top can open and leave bottom closed if need be. Left the passage went on, Gun was sure it met up with the main hall, but there was another door about half way down on the left. He volunteered to go check it out and approached to listen.

The door was in poor shape. No lock, but someone in the past had braced this side of the door and there were axe and bashing marks on this side – testament to it attempting to being forced from the other. The halfling shook his head and returned to the group avowing that he was happy not opening the passage. We gave the hall a quick look of secret doors (finding none), and then were at the end of the hall, looking left and right. Decision time.

According to the map – we had the area with the stitched together bugbear golem (and maybe Moray Vaco), the Doubledoor the goblin menials had mentioned to us, and possibly head off to what we assumed was King Gavin’s area. None were perfect and we had about an hour and a half before the goblins were due to wake up. So we opted to head off to the main hall since we were here and go north to the Double Doors – seeing what was there.

The doors had no lock and hung poorly, actually swinging when touched. The amount of dirt on the floor let the group know the place was well traveled. Lintel and frame showed original symbology to Aine, mostly destroyed by now. We opted to enter, pushing the doors open. It was a temple – large. 2 rows of 8 pews filled most of the chamber, a raised dais on the opposite end, with a 9’ tall pumice carved statue of Maglubiyet there.

Did not want to enter but staying in the hall was a bad idea. When Carl entered, he grew upset and faint, blood flushing his face, feeling like something bad had been here in the past. The same was when Yander entered, the paladin reporting the same. The rest of the group was just uncomfortable at best. Gun and Fjord went to the statue to look around, Gun advising the half ogre to NOT step onto the dais. Rest of the party either stayed back by the door, listening weapons out, or checking the pews.

Fjord was looking the statue over, some red gems in the eyes. They were held in place by a lowered eye lid bracket – lift the “eye lid” and the gem could be removed. Don’t Touch!! He was admonished.

Gun was able to tell that someone wearing blood splattered boots stood to the left of the statue, and did so often. Priest? The boot prints did lead to the back east wall though and stop. Possible secret door? We wanted to come closer and check it out. However, when Hrimvir did, both of his undead servants stopped working and fell over loose bones. Damn it, he gathered both of them up and brought them to the other end of the chamber.

Enough of us dared to approach and checked out that end of the room – finding the secret door we expected to find on the east wall…and another secret door on the south wall! Both were activated by moving a certain brick out. Yander and Carl were convinced the one with the footprints was most likely heading to the high priest’s chamber – but now that the place was no longer controlled by Aine, the thought was it could be Moray Vaco’s. The menial goblins we had spoken to admitted the priest did often have prayer meetings behind the double doors.

We decided to open the south door first. Yander at the front, we opened the door and it slid aside, revealing a 10’x10’x crude carved chamber with a hole in the floor heading down, a wrought iron ladder fastened there, and the stink of rotting meat and carrion filling the air. “Nope. Not going to happen.” The party shut the door and spent a minute waving the reek away. Hrimvir managed to cast his animate spell, getting one of the skeletons back upright.

Quarter after 1, we were running out of time. We opted to check the east door. Weapons at the ready, the gnome and halfling were straddling the pews bow and crossbow ready to fire. Opening the door – it was indeed a private chamber. Bed, desk, table, chairs, door on the far end of the room. And a figure, small, wearing a ragged cloak wrapped tight against itself. Muttering. Child voice.

A detect evil got nothing. We dared to enter. It was a human child; 7, 8, 9? Thin, male, shorter. It smelled like a goblin. Shaved head. It had a bowl of gruel and was eating it. And he had tattoos all over his head, face, shoulders, arms, and torso. Tattoos of strange symbols and glyphs and Maglubiyat stuff. And it was terrified.

We eventually got a chance to get it to calm down. Said his name was Illi. And he was here because Moray said he was the next incarnation of Maglubiyat. Doesn’t remember where he’s from or family name. Terrified of being beat and hurt. Not allowed to leave. He had long bloodletting scars on his shins and legs. Atlas was looking the kid over and was sure that some of the runes – were the same sort of runes that we had seen all over the graveyard.

“By Thrym. The trigger. For the undead. It’s the kid.”

Fuck. If the kid dies, the undead will rise from the grave. And the kid looked like he was pretty weak already. “Look,” Yander said, “we gotta save the kid. And the goblins are about to wake up. Not going to leave him here.”

“Lets get to the Garrison building, give me a chance to really look over the runes,” Atlas offered.

The group agreed. Mostly.

“Kid’s pretty much a goblin already,” Nevah said, fingering his bow string. “You heard him, next vessel for maglubiyat. Should nix that in the butt now and save a lot of problems.”

“We aren’t killing a kid,” the paladin said.

“Sure, sure. Not yet,” the gnome replied, looking around.

We left. It was obvious that Illi had been pretty starved and walked very slow. He was distrustful of most people but for some reason accepted the paladin. He allowed Yander to lift him up and our pace doubled, the group getting out of the lower level, up to the main floor, and then to the snow. And it was COLD. 34” of snow on the ground. Hrimvir used one of his last endure element spells on Illi and we left the Monastery main building.

Cara covered the worst of our tracks and we made it to the Garrison. It was about 2:45 – goblins had to have been up for at least 45 minutes on average by now. “How soon before they notice the kid, the next Maglubiyat is missing and go looking for him?!”

Atlas had done a detect magic and was studying the 3 rune clusters on Illi that had lit up. One of them was indeed the trigger, a tattoo along the top of his back at the base of his neck, complex and difficult. It was tied to his life force as well as proximity. If he dies (goes to -1 hp) OR if it's more than 3 miles from the graveyard, the ritual’s final piece will be enacted and the 5 to 600 undead will rise from the cemetery.

The other 2 were tied together, acting as a bolster for the other. They were location runes. Effectively, Moray could TRACK Illi by these runes – being able to find him with a location spell. The limit – 3 miles. Shit, well within the area we were in now. BUT, the runes work in tandem, law of Sympathy and Three. If one of the runes was well defaced, the location effect would drop to 1 mile. And if both were defaced, the location effect would be negated.

We looked over Gun’s map. There was no way to take the kid to Guido’s Fort – even the beach was well over 3 miles away. There was a cave at the bottom of a cliff, a mile and a half away, that might work if we could deface a rune. We looked over supplies and had magical ink and a number of needles. But only Atlas had the knowledge of the right rune – and no one else had any skill that would substitute for the wizard’s possible skill. But he would need an hour to try to deface a single rune – and we were way too close with nowhere to escape to to risk doing it here. We were going to have to leave and leave now. And hopefully try to deface a rune at camp.

So by 3 PM we gathered everything up and began walking. It was slow going, snow on the ground, and half of us cold. Illi rode on Yander’s shoulders, wrapped in a blanket and cloak. We left the monastery grounds and then went down the hill eventually to the clearing there. We discussed either staying in the clearing or hitting the tree line. Either way we were going to leave a trail, and the edge of the trees would be faster than in the trees.

It was slow going to the other end of the clearing, there we found the blaze markings and walked the trail south and east until Gun felt we were near a ridge line. From here we left the trail and pushed on south through the trees. Cara stayed back, making a false trail before doubling back and obscuring the path through the trees for at least 70 or so feet.

We were going on, but going slower and slower until about 9ish, at least 3 of the party members had nothing left to give. We had to stop. Cara had some dry kindling she had been carrying and the rest of us followed Nevah out to the trees to find whatever partially dry branches we could find. Shovels hit the snow and we were able to light a fire. We ate what food we had and according to Gun, we were about a mile and a quarter from the Monastery at this point.

Thobar and Cara hung around with Atlas who had ink, needles, and hopefully an hour to work on Illi. Nevah was grumbling under his breath but was keeping watch. Yander held Illi tightly, the young man braving the pain. The rest of the group fell asleep as Atlas began working. He tapped back and forth from ink to the young man’s skin. Blood flowed, pain was etched on his face, as Atlas worked on and on…but he was not successful. Cara hit Illi with a heal spell and we were debating on trying again or going to sleep.

So we tried again at 10:30 PM, and this time, Atlas felt confident that the tattooing over the existing location rune worked – dropping the location effect from 3 miles to 1 mile. We smothered the fire, lowered the lantern, and then took turns keeping watching. The party was exhausted. Each person who tried to stay up struggled but we managed. A few giant rats approached the camp but there were too many of us and were sent off. When enough time had passed, we all got up and exhausted, still had some healing and spells to pass around.

Yandr made a suggestion on where to go with Illi. “The closest hole?” Nevah asked. The paladin scowled at him. “No. Serious. The two witches.” Gun confirmed they were under 3 miles from the Monastery so were a good place. The witches weren’t evil, just…unknown? Plus they were powerful enough to deter any of the local monsters to fight with them. With little other ideas, we figured let’s go. Gun said 4 to 5 hours from here, so we were on our way.

We continued pushing through the dense forest till eventually we came to the next blazed trail. And then from there went up and over two rises until we came to the clearing of the witches. The snow melted at the edge of the clearing, 3 gravel paths ran through to a 20x20 thatched roof cottage. Wild flowers abounded and standing outside were two women with graying hair and wearing aprons. One had a tray of cakes, the other a rolling pin in her apron.

“Look, Rosalinda!” one of the women said to her sister as we closed. “It’s those nice people we met a few weeks ago.”

“You’re right, Rosabella. Welcome!”

We talked to them and they offered us some tea and lemon squares. Yander did most of the initial set up, and we were able to suss out that these women had no problems with us, were willing to talk, and invited us in. They also seemed to know our names and treated us well.

We hung our shoes on the shoe tree inside and followed them into their home. There were more windows than we expected from the outside, the inside was larger than the building could possibly be, and there was even a second floor. We didn’t dicker around and after eating cakes and tea, explained who Illi was, what we’ve done, and why we wanted to leave him here. We also asked about the master tattoo on his back.

They were willing to watch him, charging us 75 crowns for the 2 weeks. Removing the tattoo was going to be difficult and would require special inks and time and no guarantee. They offered to try it for 400 crowns. We tabled that for now and they were happy to deal and make deals. We did learn that there is an Ogre that they don’t like, have wolf friends (we met him), and tramples their flowers. We did sell them (trade them) the two vials of bat guano we had. We got 2 extra healing potions and Atlas traded his for a pair of web scrolls.

At the end they gave us a large syringe to stick in the dragon’s ass and get some blood. We also learned a bit about the dragon. It was 300 years old and was born when the church of Aine fell to the forces of Maglubiyat. Because it never had parents, it never learned to cast magic – but it still had all the other dragon abilities.

Illi was given big thanks and a hug from Yander and the rest of the party wished the young tortured kid well (most of the party). We had made the call with only a few days of food left and the need for Moray and the rest of Gavin’s forces to calm down to head back to Fort Guido. We left here and went west, passing a long lake and looking over the hobgoblin camp there. We could count 12ish of the greenskins, but the huts and tents led us to believe it might be twice that number.

We pressed on till the sun was going down, getting to the ridge with Maglubiyat’s statue. We tied rope and climbed down, making our tired way to the Giant Bat cave. The bats had gone so we went in, set a fire (thanks Cara for more kindling) and exhaustedly fell asleep.

We awoke early on the 13th and were gone before the Giant Bats could get to us. We did not make the beach until 12 PM where we lit the orange signal log and waited. By 2:30 Tila and her boat showed up and we paid her the 10 crowns. She told us about Cullen and his safe return. Eventually we arrived at Fort Guido (3:15 PM) where Guido met us again on the dock. We had no treasure for this trip and after giving his a single small stipend, went into the Lion’s Den where we arranged lodgings and sleeping for the night (Nevah, Atlas, Hrimvir, and Cara getting rooms, the rest of the party a space by the fire in the Common Room). We were going to buy what we needed and head off again tomorrow.

Icemonth the 13th, 3:15 PM.

Meet 128, Adv 15, 6/28/25

Plantmonth the 20th, 3:20 PM, 239 of the 29th age. We discussed options on where to go and for how much longer to adventure for. We were still doing ok, so figured another hour or two. So from there we went west, the passage curved and meandered a bit, heading north and then u turned to the south – and there was a 15’ drop here. The ceiling was normal, but the ground here slid down and back, making a reverse clay cliff. Nothing was at the bottom. It was an annoyance at best. We set rope and one at a time, made our way down, Connal doing the monk drop thing at the end.

The passage traveled a bit and then ended up at a large chamber – 30’ x 50’ oval. 4 sets of walls were here, made of well made ceramic bricks. Two of the walls made a 20’ angle in front of us, the acute side facing away, and the other 2 did the same 20’ more feet beyond that. There seemed to be a glow, steady yellow white beyond the second wall. Each set of walls were about 4’ high as well, making seeing over them difficult.

We discussed options to go in and check it out, summon, invisible, brave. So most of us hung by the door while one of us snuck in, looking past the 1st wall. There was an elven warrior, clad in armor, and very dead. Like he died in agony. Black burst veins ran through his entire body and equipment.

We were discussing next options when We figured Shim could send a single figure in. He made a summons, and got a manes demon. He coaxed it to go forward one step at a time until it came to the next wall. And then it seemed to shrivel as we heard a horrific teeth shaking keening cry. And rising up from beyond the 2nd wall was a ghostly undead horrific elven ghost like apparition. And it was screaming. And the scream made everyone shake and cover their ears in terror.

Banshee.

Its mournful wail filled most everyone with terror – and instantaneously, everyone fled except Shim, Wilhelm, and Connal. The rest of the group dropped everything they were holding and ran back. Where they hit the 15’ tall cliff and started fighting and clawing to climb it up and get away. Connal put on his negative energy gloves and pulled to cowl of his cloak up and over. Wilhelm stood behind him and stuck him with a bull’s strength, and Shim fired off 3 magic missiles, tearing into the dead elf.

And then she was up front. And being non corporeal, she was going to be able to sieve around and get Shim. So Connal stepped up and punched, kicked, and slapped with his negative plane gloves as Wilhelm struck her with a Fairie Fire spell. Shim jammed some tallow in his ear. And her screams and cries KEPT on doing damage to us, bleeding away hit points one after the other.

The other group, one and then two managed to clamber up to the top of the cliff and started running blind through the hall, smashing heads, faces, and whatever, as they ran away into the gloom. The Banshee and Connal were grappling with one another, her negative hits freezing the air with his passing. Wilhelm drew Bleakwinter and Shim fired more magic missiles. Connal was hurting and used his monastic ability to heal some of his wounds, giving up the grapple to try and strike her fast and repeatedly.

Another summon went out, this time a Barbaric elf maiden, who backed up into the room, horrified and began shooting. But her arrows went through the banshee, risking hitting Connal. The banshee hated the elf woman and the grapple was reensued, the monk maintaining control of the banshee’s movement. More of the party had climbed up the wall, a few of them bleeding and dazed from smashing into the walls as they ran into the dark, ending up in the dead end passage.

We were getting hurt now, hit points were whittling away. The banshee was not going down, and in her anger, she fired off a death wail – her most powerful attack at Connal. The shrieking wail was like the claws of death walking over your grave and only the monk’s great will kept him from succumbing – but he still took 20 hit points of damage (the elven barbarian died instantly, Shim and Wilhelm were just out of range. Connal was down to a handful of hit points and Wilhelm raced in, healing at the ready and doles out.

And still she screamed on. And then Shim needed healing, and Wilhelm. And at this point, the group redoubled their efforts as the banshee was raggedly falling apart – and Connal struck the killing blow – destroying the banshee. Her death caused a feedback loop of negative and positive energy briefly coexisting that fed back to Connal and zapped him hard – frying about half of his magic items in the process.

We healed and took stock of our messes. – and they were plenty. We were pretty much out of spells. And the fear aura ended after a turn, so the others came back slowly and with care and concern. Everyone was tired and dirty. We picked up the few items that had been dropped and we decided to open the hut and rest.

We took out the meat that had been purified from the Leucrotta room and cooked it here, and then we doled it out and ate it. We felt our hurts and healed some more, and then tired and so done – fell asleep. We awoke the next day and prayed, studied, and got ourselves ready to go. Past the banshee chamber was the next passage down, and from up here we could hear music – chaotic with hints of melody, mostly flutes and harps.

We checked our gear, tied a number of ropes together and made the trip again one at a time, 2 people at the top lowering the others one at a time. Finally it was Godrick with a levitate taking Darius down, and then Connal was last with the rope and some careful climbing. By 8:20 on the 21st, we were at the bottom.

Short hall to a room with dozens of puddles and colored drips falling from the ceiling 6’ up, motes of light flitting about. We did not want to enter, and the water was making the music. And the motes were bothering us. The thought was fairies. Wilhelm spoke Sylvan so he tried first. And one of the motes drew closer. It was naked 3” tall winged figure. Called itself Bluebell.

They had come here some time ago, following the neogi just ot get something from them, through the wrinkle down below. But they were sort of trapped here now. There is something otherworldly behind them – and the Neogi and their machinery hurts them to pass. We convinced them the neogi were all gone, so they turned off the music water thanked Wilhelm, let us know to be “Afraid of the fear ahead!” and they flew on and off, up the passage to eventually the world above.

We got past the room now with better ease, and from here the passage had three choices – south to another 15’ cliff and then a split there east and southwest, nor west a bit and then north. Shim checked the gem, and it was pointing down…and just a notch west!! OMG! Getting closed thank god! (500’ or so below the ground?!?!)

We took the north passage and as it went 40 or so paces, it turned to the west. But those in the front started to feel…worry. Like a strange all consuming fear and worry. Um…back up.. Shim tried to fire off a dancing lights spell and it went into the larger area beyond, illuminated some …tentacle thing…before the lights faded.

And we then could all hear it talking to us in our brains. It asked if the group is willing to lie that it will free it. They are doing their best. We’re still lying right? It called itself a Feyr, and comes from a different world without time, just emotions. It came here through the Wrinkle a few years ago, took out the Neogi patrons, and then was looking to leave when some Githyanki came in doing something near the wrinkle. So it leaves its body hear and sends its mind elsewhere to hunt about.

We could feel that anything with this powerful creature was not in our best interests. But we played nice and it said it would let us past if we could get rid of the Githyaki. But they are past it – so we could…yeah, not happening. We backed up and it faded from our minds and we felt better. We went to the cliff, made our way down to the bottom. The lantern ran dry and we had to refill it again. Relying on Shim direction, we went southwest. Passage went for a bit and then looped back to the north – dead ending and at a pile of busted glass almost 4’ tall covering an area 25’ at least . We backed up griping and moaning, and went back to the other passage to the east.

The corridor went on for 35 paces then turned south and there was a smell, foul like rot. Ground sloped away and ceiling went to about 18’ in height. Biggish area, burl of a tree, almost to the ceiling. In the back of the burl, was an oversized treasure chest painted blue and red, poorly made. 5’ wide, 4’ deep and tall.

“Mimic” the group said. “Fuck that”

Shim gave a summons, getting a goblin this time. Had it sneak around to the back of the box, where it crept up on the box – and was immediately eaten.

“Mimic.”

It turned to us and jumped forward – while 4’ 5’ wide leathery winged huge eyeballs with tails and spikes dove down at the party. The mimic spat a huge amount of glue, sticking Darius to the ground. The group was going to split up but now committed to staying. Nate and Rhygar drew up to receive a charge as Darius was hit and poisoned by the eyewing monster. Eoghan threw some arrows and Connal monked out of the way.

The big thing was Shim dropping a gelatinous cube – right on the damned mimic – stopping it there and forcing the two of them to do battle. We took out the eyewings with little more issue and then the mimic which was pretty messed up from the cube was finally dispatched. We looked inside (after healing), and found 4 magic items: A staff, a bat winged cloak, a sword, and a shield. Shim assured us everything was magical, and quite a bit – so treasure was doled out and we discussed heading back to face the Feyr now.

Plantmonth the 21st , 10:30 PM, 239 of the 29th age. 

2nd Campaign, Session 12. 6/24/25

Icemonth the 10th, 12:45 PM. We had gone back to the Garrison at the southwest end of the Monastery grounds and talked at length of our options and what our plans were. First, we had 7 days of food (6 after today), so the thought of going back to Fort Guido and hiding out was an option but we discarded it. Thinking Gavin and his team might follow us or better dig in and have more defenses was an option but it would be more impactful if we came back after a day.

That led us to discuss staying here and now. It was a blizzard outside, 30 mph winds, blinding snow, 150 foot visibility. No one was going out to track and that included us. We figured for a day, we’d be ok. The building was cold though. So we used about a third of our wood to light a fire in the kitchen oven to not only warm the place, but give each of us the chance for a good night’s sleep.

We were also wet. So we took off our clothes, set them up to dry, and kept careful watch. There were some chinks in the mortar, but the kitchen did heat up to about 65 degrees which gave us the chance to get a good night’s sleep. Knowing the goblinoids were nocturnal, we wanted to be at the Monastery proper by 6, 6:30. So we ate, got dressed again in our dry clothes, and Nevah banked the fire so it would give little light but still enough warmth. And the party rested, taking alternative watches as need be.

We were up the 11th and by 6 AM, were out the door. A trio of Endure elements were cast (Hrimvir, Fjord, and Thobar) and we went outside. It was still snowing. Over 3 feet on the floor, but the wind had died down some. It took us a time to make it to the door (6:30). We could see the goblins had opened it during the night, and partially covered tracks led off to the garden and back. Ok, they resupplied some food stuffs.

We entered with care. Spear racks were gone now. And the two secret doors were closed. We went to the north one, listened, got the all clear, and opened it up. Less carrion in the hall here, and quiet. We entered with care, went south behind the sanctuary, and stopped at the cross hall. The original noose on the floor was gone, and someone had made an attempt to clean up. There was a cloth head mop here, stained with dye, dirty, and smelled of urine (what else were they going to use to moisten the mop? Filthy!).

Still no goblins. Detect evil was also coming up blank. We entered the original hobgoblin/goblin watch room – empty. In the intervening day, they also took all the pillows and sheets. Dragged the beds away from the back wall. We dragged them back in place, got the clean from Gun on the door being quiet, and entered.

Store room was empty and stone stairs went down into the darkness. Listening got us nothing. So we drew up marching order and proceeded down with exaggerated care, the gnome advising everyone of a goblin trickery. Good call because just about 1/3 of the way down 2 steps were covered with a sheen of oil, and 2 steps past that had broken glass shards all of it. Needed to get this out of here. Nevah suggested he’d be right back – hoping to head back to the 1st floor and get that mop!

We waited as he retraced his steps and handed the mop up to the front. We then used the mop to sop up the oil, and then sweep the glass shard away. But now we had a wooden handled mop stained brown with dye, damp with human urine, coated in at least half a flask of oil, and had scores of glass shards stuck in the fibers.

Best weapon ever.

We took it, knowing that if we lit it on fire and hit someone with it – epic.

By 7:45 we were at the bottom of the stairs. No smells of incense. No mumbling goblinoid voices. We talked about options and decided to head as far west as we could – there was a passage beyond the last one that turned southwest and should get us closer to our goal. We made it there and then continued on with serious care. The passage had turned here and went on 40 or 50 feet before turning full south. Some faint light was coming out of a side passage and we inched closer before looking through the 20’ wide opening.

It was an arena. Easily 120 by 70, the floor of which was 10’ below the hallway level. Seating for hundreds. Two huge columns from the floor to the ceiling above. But there were 4 bodies in the gloom below and a 4 count of slow-burn torches here. A few of us eventually inched in and made their way down to the floor.

The bodies were that of two wolf-hounds, and two humans. Most likely rangers. Which matched what we had learned back at Fort Guido. It looks like they’ve been dead for a week or 3, and their final death involved arrows – most likely from up in the stands down there. Who knows how long they held out before being killed. We looked all over for their gear and didn’t find it exactly, but there was a hidden area under some of the seats that had a ring, sword, bow, short sword, leather armor, and a handful of arrows. Atlas did a detect magic and identified two of the items – Ring was a ring of protection (given to Hrimvir), and the sword was a short sword +1 (Fjord took it).

After making sure there was nothing left and Gun finishing the mapping, we left the arena about 8:30 and kept on down the hall. At some point we ended up with two possible doors, one on the east wall, one on the south – both at the end of the passage. We listened to both and heard snoring beyond the east one. Yander verified a detect evil spell – 10 of them – 5 goblins, 5 hobs.

The party decided to send Gun and Fjord in to take them out while sleeping and the rest of us quiet in the hall. They got the door opened, and split up, 5 on left, 5 on right. They held hands over mouths and stabbed in throats. One at a time until 1 was left and they invited Nevah in to do the honors. We looked over the room. Door on the east wall which we opened and checked – went back to the long hall we had been in yesterday. Ok, map was filling in.

It was 20 after 9 when we got to the south door. Opening it showed a hall going south and then turning to the east. A look there showed a long hall to another door, and a side passage also going south here as well. Gun felt the east door would lead to the hall so we approached. It was here that Atlas noticed another alarm spell glyph up there. Matches the same one that was in the supply room. Opening the door will trigger the alarm and we’ll be knee deep in goblins. If he had some crushed gemstones and a bit of luck, he could try and bypass the rune. We decided to just not and instead went to the south passage.

It was long – 80, 90’. We looked for secret doors (found none). They had decorated the hall with crude pictures of greenskin goblins. At the end we could see a wavering light around the east turn and glanced quickly there. Two figures 40’ down keeping guard. Hobgoblin with a crossbow and goblin with a bow.

We needed to check it out but they were too far to risk an attack or charge. Atlas once again came to the front and used a Sleep spell, knocking both of them out. Knife to the throat and they were no longer an issue. There was a passage here to the north with a door on the east wall. And a passage to the south a few feet on with 2 doors on the east and west wall there – AND the passage kept going into the gloom. We dragged the 2 bodies north and listened while Yander did his detect evil.

15 Hobgoblins. Most likely sleeping. But 15 of them. Fuck, that’s bad.

We went to the other 2 rooms and checked them out. The east door had 14 more hobgoblins, and the west door had 14 bugbears.

Damn it – 43 powerful enemies if we do something terribly wrong. We wanted to keep checked but were very nervous. Looking through our gear, We had a length of barbed wire which using Hrimvir’s pliers, Fjord fastened around the two doors on the south wall that were facing each other – that would slow them down. For the north door, Cara called out a prayer to Thor, warping the wood and forcing the door there to stick closed.

We kept going east from here, trying hard to be super quiet. Lots of goblin graffiti here. 70’ or so and a triangular alcove here with a double door. Echoes sounded something awake on the other side. And a detect evil got a number of goblins, hobgoblins, and a strange hobgoblin that we assumed was the Goblin king, Gavin.

Ok. Not ready for this. We decided to back up (it was 10:30) from here and headed all the way to the corner, down the long hall, up to the door, and then to the ready room that we had killed the goblins and hobgoblins sleeping in. We opened the door and exited here. Hallway went north, south, and east from here. North would lead us back to the kitchen and double doors, so we went south.

Came to a door and did another detect evil – getting according to Yander, 24 goblin pings beyond it. Ok – but still 24 of them. We kept heading south, passing the door with the alarm on it (not visible from this side) and the passage ended and went east. We went that way and there was a door here that also went to the goblin room (2 ways in – we’d have to either use that to our benefit or prevent the goblins from doing it when they get the chance).

We kept heading east to the end and the passage went north. Gun assumed it would eventually make a large square. There was a door on the left and a few of us found a secret door on the right! It rose up and to the left, a rough passage was beyond it. While listening to the door here though, Gun could hear something on the other side sniffing around. And Yander got a single strange scented evil ping. It was fumbling with the knob so we all filed into the secret passage and yanked the wall closed. The passage went north and east and ended at a tight iron mesh where 8 big assed birds with colorful feathers, long heads, and very long beaks filled with double rows of curled sharp teeth.

The druid had to dig in her memory a bit but said they were Piranha birds. Vicious, meat eaters, and if there were enough of them, capable of swarming. We could see through the mesh a door in the room on the west wall, so conceivably we could get there from the main hall. But it would be dangerous to open that door. It was 11:45 on Icemonth the 11th and we were discussing our next options.

Meet 127, Adv 15, 6/21/25

Plantmonth the 20th, 10:20 AM, 239 of the 29th age. After making sure all the purloined mercury was stored away, we traveled back to the “Y” intersection and explored the southwest, and last, passage. The ceiling, floor, and walls had these strange grooves running in them, a few inches to a few feet long. They were triangular in shape, and deeply gouged the passage.

Eoghan and Wilhelm gave further look and discovered very fine flaky rust particles in the grooves. In addition, there were indents in the floor here and there, maybe 30 in total down the entire length, something needle point had pushed into the ground – spear like but way too fine in diameter.

We crept on. After some time the passage turned more south and opened to a largish chamber. The light was not shining too far, but we did see a pair of very rusty metal boxes, barely a notch over 3’ square. Nate wanted to get closer and the rest of the group hung back as the brave fighter approached the box, and stabbed it with the point of his halberd. It went through the side easily. He pulled it out and turned the box. The side spilled open, showing just fine smattering of badly rusted parts within.

However the light beyond here showed three more boxes – about 5’ square. And then another two boxes past that – these were 6 and a half feet square. But those also had badly rusted articulated metal spider legs on each. We backed up again and discussed options. Throughout it all ,we kept hearing a strange musical trilling deeper in the darker part of the room. Captain Asher cast Deathwatch and the group inched forward again.

And he got a ping. Not from the now 9’ tall box much less rusty and with 8 more big spider legs on it – no from something just past it. We came closer to another box, hoping to open it, but made too much noise and the trilling stopped.

We all backed up hard and Captain Asher’s spell picked up…5 creatures. And closing. They were big and alien looking. The bottom part was a 4’ tall wolf spider, colorfully dyed in weird places. And on top of it was what seemed to be a 4’ tall moray eel – big teeth, vestigial eyes, undulating and looking about. They crawled on boxes and inched closer, trilling as they did so.

So Shim cast Comprehend Languages and the figures all turned to Shim and ran forward. Two of them leapt from boxes, slamming into Darius and Connal who were plugging the exit of the chamber with their bodies. The monk tried to dodge but failed, getting stabbed by the sharp legs and then bit – and the bite was poisonous! He was affected as if by a Slow spell, moving half normal speed and resolving last in the round.

Darius’ new armor got pretty beat up, new holes appearing in the banded mail. The battle was joined and we poured on the fight. Seeing another one readying the jump, Nate and Ryhgar held their tridents and spears at the ready while the rest of the group fired arrows and magic missiles into the mess. The alien creature did get hurt but could take quite a bit of damage.

Indeed the back one on the box DID jump – and the two fighters skewered it out of the air, killing it before it could land. Wilhelm called out a summons and a hippogriff appeared in a flash! It kicked and bit the nearest one, cutting it to half hit points. Then another died, and another. The last ones were very hateful (according to Shim’s Language spell) and were going to keep attacking. So we hacked, cut, and attacked and finally the last ones died.

Connal’s poison expired in a few minutes and he was able to move again at full speed. We looked over the rest of the chamber. A nest was here, 5 eggs in it, all cracked. The last big box we figured out how to open up and it was filled with spikes, gears, gyros, gizmos, and other strange things. A glow was from the back. It took Darius a few tries to get under the stronger struts in the machine before he could finally grab a handful of pretty screwed up, but still functioning manastones.

We headed off and there was the hole heading down to the next level. We tried the light coin on the wide trick – the descent was large here. 80’ vertically, 120’ by distance. We tied off the rope to the big box and spliced three together. Connal and Shim went down first securing the bottom – then Godric did a levitate, ferrying himself and two others down. Darius and Captain Asher tied rope to others and lowered them safely one at a time, and then they went down, the last one hitching a ride with Wilhelm who cast Spider Climb – noting he was down to about half his original complement of spiders for spell components.

It was 12:30 PM at this point and we followed the passage as it “S” turned a bit, Darius anxiously looking for dead ends.

About 15 minutes of walking and we found an area where rain was falling in a 15’ diameter area, colorful rain that hit the clay floor and was instantly absorbed. Not wanting to risk it, we summoned…a kobold. It was commanded to step into the multicolored rain where everything about it – skin, hair, belongings, all turned monocolor – tan. We then had it come back through and it happened again – turning black.

Godric meanwhile admitted he had a Waterbane spell – allowing him to make a 4’ diameter sphere of water repulsion around up to 3 targets per casting. So we paused here, allowed him to restudy his spell, and then chose the three tallest party members – casting it on each of them. They then acted as a shield, ferrying 1 person each, went back and got the rest of the group. We took the Northwest “Y” passage here and it went on, curved east, then south, then west – doubling back on itself again.

“Counts as a dead end,” Darius grunted. We ferried everyone back through the colored rain again, Godric’s spell still in force, and took the south, southeast section of the passage. It “S” turned a few times and them spilled out to a smallish chamber (15’ diameter) with a southwest passage and a northeast passage. There were 2 dead mummified elves here.

We looked them over. One was older, male, clad in the manner of a priest. However any identifiable markings such as symbology or the like were removed from his clothes and belongings. The other was a young elven girl, 7 if she was human. She had a sad look on her face and was clad in homespun and peasant wear. In her dress pocket was a stuffed toy dog. Eoghan took it. It was about 10 after 3 so we opted to go southwest. The passage went sa bit, curved back to the east…and dead ended.

Lots of roots here but another dead end. It was 3:20 on Plantmonth the 20th.

2nd Campaign, Session 11. 6/12/25

Icemonth the 9th, 5:05 PM

“Brian…there’s a bunch of them coming now!” Fjord cried out, backing up, weapon ready. The group fanned out, weapon up. Hrimvir called out a blessing from Thrym, filling the party with energy. But the fact that we were ill prepared for the fight and low on spells had Yandr suggest, “Seriously – what are we doing?! Let’s go! I’ll cover everyone!”

The group opted to flee heading back to the stairs and drawing up again. A glance down the hall showed a serious number of hobgoblins and a bugbear leader, all armed and armored up. Even Nevah, bow at the ready, grimaced at the number approaching. “Fuck it, up the stairs. Now!”

Cara who was already there, took out two flasks of oil while the rest of the group filed by, until as the foes were coming, she smashed them to the ground and we got the oil lit – sending a 3’ gout of flame up and coving our retreat. We charged to the top of the stairs, contemplated throwing food and barrels down, but decided it was better to just go.

We left the alcove area, ended up at the guard room, Gun locked the door and we used Cara’s poor rope to tied the door handle to a pair of beds. Then we ran for the hall, to the Sanctuary, and then out the monastery doors into the snow. Fjord and Hrimvir ran point, plowing over 2’ of snow aside with their bodies. The wind had picked up to 20 mile gusts and Cara went last, balanced on her snow shoes and dragging her cloak back and forth behind us to obscure the worst of the trail behind. With the wind, it should fill in any obvious tracks within a half hour.

Cold, wet, and tired, we returned to the garrison where we entered, closed the door, and braced it shut. We opted to not light a fire, cursing us to cold rations and shivering under blankets. We wrote what scrolls we could and after setting up a watch, we fell asleep.

We awoke early on Icemonth the 10th and after praying and studying, were ready to go by quarter after7. A shake of the lantern let us know it was 1/3rd full (8 hours). We left the garrison, closed it behind us, then took a circuitous route back to the Monastery. It was 8 AM when we made it to the door. 8:30 when we were back at the hobgoblin chambers. It was obvious that they had forced the door, rope was missing. At the alcove, there was now no longer any food or water stored here.

We proceeded down quietly, hearing nothing. Goblinoids are nocturnal so this was sleep time for them. We decided to recheck the original northern hall. By 8:50 we were back in the sitting room. Fire was out and stew was gone. Beyond here the cell was still closed. Yandr let us know there was a single evil figure in the bugbear room. And from the taste, it was the dwarf.

We crept up, slowly looking around. Fjord and Yandr went back down the hall to keep watch. Gun took some of his new contact poison out, applied to to a piece of the bottom of his cloak, and using his gloved hand, held it ready. He snuck in to the sleeping dirty dwarf in the bugbear bed, slapped it over his face and mouth – and he died! His heart and lungs froze and he gasped, muscles locking up until he passed on in 20 seconds.

Whoa.

We looked over the room, the dwarf had old callused wrists and ankles, showing that at one point he was in manacles for a time – but not for a while now. He had a single worn forge hammer. We left the area and decided to head back to the other passage and retry the forge area again.

By 9:30 we were back at the area, and Gun and Fjord assured us it was quiet. Yandr got a faint pair of evil pings to the east and south – nothing here though. We entered. The forge was large enough for 4 people to work at once. ¾ of a ton of iron bar was here, as well as enough coal and woodstuffs to run the forges for some time. Weapon racks were empty, but tool racks had 4 sets of about everything. Door on the south wall.

We looked around and decided to place the tools inside the 2nd furnace, under the ash and residue in there – they might find them, they also might not and accidentally burn them. The south door led to a simple cell. It appeared that this was where the dwarf normally slept and stayed but he had been upgraded to the bugbear chambers (before he died).

We headed back to the northern hall, went east and headed off to the area with the 2 evil pings. There was a closed door here and a passage that went further on. We opted for the door and looking it – it was a torture room. Iron maiden, rack, cauldron with oil, pokers. Two goblins here in leather and barbed wire, woman in the bed, man on the floor. Some, BDSM stuff? The party went in and took them out.

There were 4 cells in here, each with some moldering hay and little else. The iron maiden had the bones of a long dead person. The scent of incense was coming from the other hall. Yandr let us know that there was nothing evil there – but the place had the taste of evil – as if something evil had been done there. Moray Vaco’s area? We proceeded with caution.

The hall turned twice until we could see a single torch burning in a sconce. There was a door partially open near it – and another door at the end of the hall. There was a metal basket there with 5 torches spent and three fresh. The hall was very clean for some reason. We could also smell dogs.

The thought was to wait and see. That torch was not going to last forever. And it was a good thing we did. As it was getting low, a figure came out of the partially open room. It was a conglomerate of stitched together bugbears, at least 5 of them, gruesomely made into a golem of dead superior goblinoids. It lit the torch, put the spent in the rack, and then went back and got a broom, sweeping the hall clean.

We did not want to fight the golem so we left here and headed back the long way until by 11:20, were back outside the hall with the forge. The gut was the goblins were probably going to sleep another 3 hours or so, maybe a bit more. But we could hear very faint voices coming down the long hall past the forge. So we followed.

It split here, turning south eventually or heading off to the southwest. The south had the faint goblin voices – so we went that way. The hall was very long here and we went slow and with care, after Gun and Fjord gave it a quick scouting (2 doors and the passage kept going).

The first door was closed and locked, so we went on past here to the next door. There was a doubledoor on the other side of the hall a bit further on, but we could hear goblin voices here. They were thin and reedy, bitching about getting up early and getting breakfast ready. The door was locked and maybe barred. We wanted it open but didn’t want to alert the entire compound. So we knocked on the door hard and waited.

One of the goblins told us to go away, it was too early for breakfast, come back later. So we knocked again harder. Goblin thought we were one of the ogres and berated us to leave. We played stupid and kept annoying the goblins to open the door before one of them was very mad, pulled the bar and unlocked the door, pulling it open.

And Nevah shot him at point blank with his crossbow, sending him crashing back 12’ to roll to a stop in the huge over sized dining room.

We entered quick seeing 3 goblins, thin, small, and wearing rags, working on setting the tables and getting the place ready for breakfast. They put their hands up immediately and said, “We surrender!”

Nevah went to methodically shoot another when Yandr was right there. “What the fuck do you think you are doing?!” The paladin asked, hand out, “They surrendered.”

Nevah drew himself up and got in the paladin’s face. “We talked about this upstairs! No surrender, remember?! Let me kill them.”

The two of them got to squabbling as we shut the door and the 3 goblins came forward ready to be captured. “It’s ok,” one of them said as we tied him up. “We get roughed up and captured often. We know the drill.”

We checked the room out. Kitchen beyond here, they were steeping beans for now to make a porridge. King Gavin gets everyone up about 3-4 PM and they all come in and eat. (3 hours?) No pantry here. The goblins aren’t allowed to go anywhere else but they do give a sort of idea of the nearby rooms. A store room is north of here. And the seating in here is for about 80.

After getting what infor we can out of them, we leave them in the kitchen, and head off back to the store room. It is locked but Gun manages to pick the lock, twisting it open and we entered. Cured leather, grain, corn, wheat, oats, thousands of arrowheads, fresh torches, 20 coils of rope, 200 cloaks, 800 spikes, 200 backpacks, etc. A trove to outfit an army.

We managed to get a pair of ropes when Atlas was looking back at the door. At the top was a glyph, spread over the door and lintel. And we had broken it when we entered. “Guys?” The mage intoned slowly. “I think we set off an alarm.”

Yandr did a quick detect evil – and got 30 pings at the limit of his senses to the south and closing. “Fucking hell.”

The party ripped the door open and ran north. The goblins, hobgoblins, and bugbears gave immediate chase, shouting and crying. We scooped up Gun (Hrimvir) and Nevah (Cara), running hard and doing our best to stay ahead of the rising horde. We hit the hall, turned right, and charged for the stairs, Yandr letting us know it was now maybe 40 behind us. At the stairs we did not pause, hitting it with all we had, breathing hard and legs churning. At the top we blew through the door and slammed it closed, Gun locking it and the party quickly tying the rope to the bed. Paladin let us know it was at least 50 now.

We ran across the chamber before we heard the door behind us tear open, blades hacking at the rope as we charged out and ran for the Sanctuary – 3 to 4 minutes tops ahead of the goblinoids giving chase. We hit the door outside, snow was falling, visibility was down to 150’ tops, wind was howling. Blizzard.

Hrimvir and Fjord took the front, the half orc and half ogre shoving the 3’ snow aside with the bodies and shields. An endure elements was doled out to keep Fjord in top form as they charged off out of the Monastery and towards the exit. We ran on for 6 additional minutes in the snow before Fjord was forced to slow, holding his side in paid and breathing like a bellows. Hrimvir took point for another minute or two before he too was just done.

We were quiet, weapons waiting, looking back. It was obvious the goblins were not going to chase us in the snow, there was a blizzard going on and no visibility. We waited to get breath back and then cold and miserable, headed back up the hill and made it to the garrison again. We entered, closed the door behind us and barred it in place.

“This isn’t going to remain hidden for long,” Carl offered. “They are subhuman but they will find this place especially since we’ve now been in their lair and they’ve seen us and chased up twice.” He looked around, “What are we going to do?”

“Besides kill them,” Nevah offered.

“Of course,” Carl agreed. “Besides that.”

12:45 PM, Icemonth the 10th