Journal 1: Spiders? We don't need no stinking spiders
General Summary
On a morning like any other, in the forest-side village of Bree, two young men, Nero and Nate, checked into the Crooked Tusk tavern. Nero immediately hit it off with Wynna, daughter to the innkeeper Masim. While Wynna seemed very enamoured with the half-elf's advances, Masim intervened harshly and told Nero off. On the other side of town, the elvish animal caretaker Rael was approached by Glenn the goat herder with a peculiarly affected goat whose eyes and mouth eminated a viscous black goo. After unsuccessfully attempting to cure the goat, Rael ordered Glenn to separate the remaining goats and to keep them here, away from their typical grazing spot in the nearby Eldarian Forest. In an act of mercy, Rael put the goat out of his misery and burned its corpse after he sent Glenn away.
Orcs, Ogres, and Omitted details
As Nero was drinking away the tavern's supplies, two brutish-looking men entered the inn. They rushed past the few locals there as they discussed where to find Nate with the innkeeper. While they headed upstairs, Nero, Nate's bodyguard, ordered more to drink. The brutes tried apprehending Nate from his room, but Nate, hearing them approach, featherfell out of the window, and disguised himself as a fat balding villager. While this completely dumbfounded the two assailants, the nearby villagers saw everything happen and word quickly spread to Mardak Strongjaw, the village chieftain. Upon returning to the Crooked Tusk, Nate was awaited by two local guardsman who came to bring him to Mardak. This perked his ears, as this kind of protection was his reason for being in Bree. Nero, having had just enough to drink, came along with Nate this time.
Azeir, the town's magician and entertainer extraordinair, was putting on a show for the local kids as a loud cracking sound sprang the village. The local guards, as well as all members of our party rushed over from their respective origins to the other side of the village square to find a Half-Ogre assaulting local livestock in a blind frenzy. The local guards quickly turned around and ran away, apparently to get help. Our heroes, however, banded together to try and defeat this mad creature. While completely eluding the Half-Ogre’s attacks, they beat the creature down, prompting the Half-Ogre to burst into tears. Repeatedly asking to not be punished anymore, Nate (the only one who spoke the creature's language) talked to the creature, attempted to calm it down. The Half-Ogre, much like a confused toddler, said “she” told him to attack something, but then everything became a blur and suddenly he was here in a mad fight with some innocent cows. Nate, otherwise preoccupied, didn’t prompt any further and waited for Mardak to arrive.
Mardak immediately approached Kurr, the Half-Ogre, as an old friend would. He thanked the group for their help in calming him, and asked them to follow him to his house, the town hall. On their way there, Rael told Mardak of the goat and the corruption. Mardak quickly changed the topic, but opened up when they arrived at his house. He offered the party 600 gold pieces, as well as a variety of potions and weapons, should they stop the spreading corruption in the Eldarian Forest. To sweeten the deal, he also promised Nate that he would be safeguarded in Bree, and that Mardak will put in a good word for him with King Valdorin IX.
The party organized a meeting with Stane Tanner, the demented, once-powerful Cleric who had been to Durum Kar, a long abandoned dwarven temple in the nearby forest. They were unable to glean much from this conversation, but did gather that Stane messed with powers he couldn’t contain. Nero and Nate, uninterested in this meeting, left to start a party in the inn. Nero bought some rounds for the locals and went to gamble away his recent earnings for escorting Nate. Azeir arrived to find Nate taking “his” stage and they joined together in a musical/magical performance that enthralled the audience. Later that night Nero was awoken from his drunken stupor by a gorgeous blond elven woman being beaten by three burly men with no recognizable faces or features of any kind for that matter. Nero quickly sprung to action and stopped the assailants. After beating them, Nero noticed a slight silver mist around him and the elven woman. The same woman who seemed magically healed from her bruises kissed him and Nero woke up in the tavern.
Onto adventure
Early in the morning the party set off on their journey. Almost immediately after leaving the village, they were ambushed by the same two mercenaries. Surprisingly, they pleaded for Nate to join them peacefully. While Rael was hiding in nearby bushes, contemplating why he should aid the troublesome Nate, the party defeated the two bandits easily. Stripping them of their belongings and warning them to never show their faces again, they eventually let them go.
Having chosen to forego the safety of the roads, the party found themselves a decent way on their journey before setting up camp. Rael spotted somebody watching them, only to find the lackey of the two bandits spying on them in nearby bushes. After stumbling his way through a few lies, he admitted he was there to keep an eye on them while Kraven, his superior in the bandit guard, went to go back to New Hope. The party, now definitely fed up with this, tied the bandit to a nearby tree. And went about half an hour further into the forest while clearing their track as best they could, before finally setting their camp site back up.
Standing guard in turns, the penultimate guardsman was rudely interrupted by a piercing howl from the distance. Prompted to be on-guard, Nate heard footsteps in the near distance approaching. The camp was attacked by two Goblins atop Worgs, providing their first lethal battle together. Our adventuring group barely made it out of this battle alive, with Nero falling unconscious during the fight. Azeir triggered a Wild Surge and got granted short teleportation powers that activated right after the battle concluded. Afterward, the party rested throughout the rest of the night and woke up to corruption all around them, it had reached their site.
Dwarves had some weird traditions
After traveling through deserted forest for another day, the party arrived at a grass field, covered in black goo, with the exception of a circle in the middle of the field, the entrance to Durum Kar. Inside the abandoned temple, the party found the acceptance halls and living units of Bahamut's followers that once inhabited this temple. They also found multiple inscriptions on the walls detailing the story of Bahamut and Tiamat, written in combinations of Dwarvish and Celestial.. Further in the temple, they found an apparent dead end. Which on further inspection, and after triggering a ceiling trap, turned out to be a magic wall. Rael, with lucky on his side, was able to swiftly dispel this wall. The party then found a skeleton with a piece of crumpled paper in its hand detailing his last stand here at the door and how he let go of his pet “Bazza”. In the next room, a bigger room than before, the party found golden egg-shaped pods, like in the story of Bahamut, with misshapen skeletons (part human, part dragonborn) “pouring” out of the pods. The edge of the room, going further into the temple was covered in cobwebs, even more so than the previous rooms in the temple, to the point that the door opening to the next room was covered in webbing entirely. Aseir, feeling militaristic, decided to keep shooting his fire bolts at the webbing, eventually drilling a way into the room, while alerting everybody and everything possible connected to the webs.
Barely into the next room, the party was greeted by the temple’s chief denizen, Bazzagog, who was disturbed from her activities in propelling the corruption. The party, not deciding to engage in Bazzagog’s conversation, attacked on sight. A swarm of spiders and two giant wolf spider were sent by Bazzagog to attack the party. While one wolf-spider was swiftly killed, the swarm and the other wolf spider attacked Nero and felled him. The poison running through his veins paralyzed him. The party, with the terror of Bazzagog entering the fray, hastily dragged Nero out of the room. Being followed by the swarm of spiders, a near-death experience for the group ensued in the previous room. Finally though, the group was able to barricade the passageway to Bazzagog’s lair with a flaming bedroll and shield, and killed off the swarm. Rael, able to use his medicine kit to great effect, cured Nero’s paralysis and the party retreated to a previously unexplored area of the temple. The party, extremely hesitant to enter this room in fear of a greater danger, was surprised to find empty living units. After staying the night in this room, the last watch, by Nero himself, was disturbed by a Half-Orc entering the temple, looking back and proclaiming his disdain that Kurr was no longer there to be sent in first to explore creepy temples...
Rewards Granted
725 exp
