Verna Appleblossom
Verna Appleblossom
Verna Appleblossom
2 Level (300/900 XP for level-up) Criminal / Spy Background Lightfoot Halfling Race / Species / Heritage Neutral AlignmentLevel 2
Hit Dice: 2/2
1d8+1 Class 1
13
19
13
8
10
17
Hit Points
Initiative (DEX)
Armor Class (AC)
Prof. Bonus
Speed (walk/run/fly)
| +4 | Expertise Bonus | |
| +2 | Proficiency Bonus |
| +1 | Strength | |
| +6 | Dexterity | |
| +1 | Constitution | |
| +1 | Intelligence | |
| +0 | Wisdom | |
| +3 | Charisma |
| +6 | Acrobatics | DEX | |
| +0 | Animal Handling | WIS | |
| -1 | Arcana | INT | |
| +1 | Athletics | STR | |
| +7 | Deception | CHA | |
| -1 | History | INT | |
| +0 | Insight | WIS | |
| +3 | Intimidation | CHA | |
| -1 | Investigation | INT | |
| +8 | Thieve's Tools | DEX |
| +0 | Medicine | WIS | |
| -1 | Nature | INT | |
| +2 | Perception | WIS | |
| +3 | Performance | CHA | |
| +5 | Persuasion | CHA | |
| -1 | Religion | INT | |
| +6 | Sleight of Hand | DEX | |
| +6 | Stealth | DEX | |
| +0 | Survival | WIS |
| Weapon / Attack | AB | Abi | Dmg | Dmg Type | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dagger | +6 | DEX | 1d4+4 | Piercing | |
| Finesse, Light, Thrown | |||||
| Unarmed Strike | +3 | STR | 2+1 | Bludgeoning | |
| Finesse, Light, Thrown | |||||
| Shortbow | +6 | DEX | 1d6+4 | Piercing | |
| Ammunition, Range, Two-Handed | |||||
| Rapier | +6 | DEX | 1d8+4 | Piercing | |
| Finesse | |||||
Rogue Features
Proficiencies * PHB, pg. 95
Acrobatics
Deception
Stealth
Sleight of Hand
Expertise * PHB, pg. 96
Your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make for two chosen proficiencies. [6th] Choose two additional proficiencies.
Thieves' Tools
Deception
Sneak Attack1d6 * PHB, pg. 96
Once per turn, you can deal an extra 1d6 damage to one creature you hit with an attack with a finesse or ranged weapon if you have advantage on the attack roll. You don’t need advantage on the attack roll if another enemy of the target is within 5 ft. of it, that enemy isn’t incapacitated, and you don’t have disadvantage on the attack roll.
Sneak Attack: (No Action)
Thieves’ Cant * PHB, pg. 96
You have learned thieves’ cant, a secret mix of dialect, jargon, and code that allows you to hide messages in seemingly normal conversation. It takes four times longer to convey such a message than it does to speak the same idea plainly.
Racial Traits
Lucky * BR, pg. 28
When you roll a 1 on the d20 for an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw, you can reroll the die and must use the new roll.
Brave * BR, pg. 28
You have advantage on saving throws against being frightened.
Halfling Nimbleness * BR, pg. 28
You can move through the space of any creature that is of a size larger than yours.
Naturally Stealthy * BR, pg. 28
You can attempt to hide even when you are obscured only by a creature that is at least one size larger than you.
Features & Traits
Equipment Copper: 0, Silver: 0, Electrum: 0, Gold: 15, Platinum: 0 Money
Languages & Proficiencies
- I am always calm, no matter what the situation. I never raise my voice or let my emotions control me.
- I am incredibly slow to trust. Those who seem the fairest often have the most to hide.
Personality Traits
- Im loyal to my friends, not to any ideals, and everyone else can take a trip down the Dagger river for all I care.
Ideals
- I will become the greatest thief that ever lived.
Bonds
- I turn tail and run when things look bad.
Flaws
™ & © Wizards of the Coast - D & D 5e Character Sheet v2.07, made by Tillerz - Updated: 2023-05-29
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Physical Description
General Physical Condition
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Gender Identity
Sexuality
Education
Employment
Failures & Embarrassments
Mental Trauma
Intellectual Characteristics
Morality & Philosophy
Taboos
Personality Characteristics
Motivation
Savvies & Ineptitudes
Likes & Dislikes
Virtues & Personality perks
Vices & Personality flaws
Hygiene
Social
Contacts & Relations
Family Ties
Religious Views
Social Aptitude
Relationships
History
Started because of government mandated program
Relationship Reasoning
Verna Appleblossom is at least honest with the situation and with the cheery attitude and being able to properly placate the Myconid Adult I cannot find any faults here.
Wealth & Financial state
I am a charming halfling rogue from Galethspyre, a small city in Breland known for making Brelish Blue dye and lumber mills.
View Character Profile
Return to Woodhelm
2/10/2024
Woodhelm Loves Us!
As we are heading to Woodhelm, we get ambushed by the town artificer. I don't remember his name, but he holds a grudge for a broken carpet and our failed raid on his home. I'm not sure what he means. I was never there!
Anyways, we fall into his trap. I wasn't expecting a trap, but I saw our barrel dwarf in a bind and ran to see if I could help him. Something tried to grab me as I was running buy I quickly dodged out of the way and made it to him. He informed me that it was a trap.
The artificer had two warforged titans, 1 retriever, and 2 trappers (one of the rug-like things that tried to grab me). The battle was quite a sight and we barely made it out alive. The retriever was particularly nasty. It had a way of paralyzing us at the wrong moment!
Just as we were getting ready to take out the retriever, the crazy artificer jumped on its back and rode away like some recurring villain in the storybooks. Oh, well. Gives me the chance to get the drop on him and stab him in the back at my earliest convenience. We got a ton of loot though: a set of fine clothes, 3 art objects (a brass mug, a gold birdcage with electrum filigree and a turquoise box each worth 250 Galifars! We also got 392 CP; 1,936 GP; 8,670 SP, and 31 PP. Poor fool looks like he had all of his wealth with him.We decided to take a full rest and rebuild Atom Smasher as he got wasted again.
Return of the Dragon Blood
27? Dravago, 996YK
27? Dravago, 996YK
Well, I seem to have been in a fog the last few weeks. Not sure of the date, and I won't ask the team lest they think I'm dumber than they already think I am. So we will pretend that it's the 27th of Dravago and let things go at that
After watching the town be destroyed by Azalakardon, we head head to the teleportation spot offshore. After a moment, we get the kobolds' attention and the portal opens. We pass through and are greeted by a super loud din of whooping and yipping. The kobolds are celebrating the return of their god. We toast a few glasses to Azalakardon and turn our attention to the kobold camp.
The boys fiddle with the portal thingy and manage to get the shore of the kobold encampment to show on the pillar. We activate the portal and step into the water off shore. Here there is a different noise altogether. It sounds like battle!
Sure enough, the camp is beset by a host of giants and ogres. Oh the smell! At least I look smart compared to them. We take on the attackers from their rear flank. It is a long, tough battle (where I am reunited with Snappy) but we manage to repel the invasion. I even managed to get the killing blow on a hill giant! Imagine my epic pose here.
The giant, of course lands on our poor monk, . I quickly loot the body to lighten the load so that she can crawl out from under the gigantic corpse. I find a pearl of power (gave it to Wabnuc), a rope of entanglement (kept it), and 20 Galifars, 4 silver, and 120 copper (sigh—split with the party).
Among the defenders we found the ranger we met at the kobold temple with his kitty. We head back into camp and consult with the elders. They claim that the giant attacks have been increasing in frequency and there also is a wolf-like Shoosuva plaguing the area and picking off lone kobolds. After some discussion we decide that the giant threat is the more dangerous one and decide to follow the tracks in the morning and take out their base camp.
We manage to sneak to the hill giant/ogre encampment. I do the sneaky things us rogues are famous for—intel! I sneak into the camp, count 1 smart-looking (hah!) hill giant (the leader) and about a dozen ogres. I sneak back to the others, and we decide to poison their food. I sneak back into the tent I identified as the cook tent and put my four vials of poison into their stew.
I sneak out and back to the edge of camp so I can watch the results of my actions. I sure wish I had popcorn! After a few moments, the stew is passed around and 6 ogres fall dead from the food. Four more are severely sickened, the other four throw their bowls down and accuse the cook of making bad food. The cook is first shocked by the accusation, and then literally shocked by a lightning bolt from the hill giant! Ouch! The poor thing is a steaming corpse now.
I report back to the team that there seems to be 4 sickly ogres, 5 healthy ogres, and a magic-using hill giant left. We devise a plan to ignite two of the tents in the area, so some of the ogres are distracted. First priority is to defuse the zapping giant, them mop up the remaining ogres. The distraction works and we mop up the rest of the camp with our usual panache (although the kitty took one too many lightning bolts to the head and didn't make it).
We decide that we will spend the night resting and recuperating and then loot in the morning. I wake up to a chorus of tiny bells and feel stronger. I wish I heard them ring more often, I could be the strongest halfling ever!
Time to loot!
We Almost Lost Our Meat Shield
24 Dravago, 994 YK
24 Dravago, 994 YK
We went to a local farm and secured two whole pigs butchered for our kobold friends. That seems to be their favorite meal and we figure it will keep their spirits up. On the way to the pier we get jumped by a bunch of punks trying to steal our meats! We make pretty quick work of the lackeys, but the cops show up just as we are about to stick the leader. The leader tries to make it seem that we are the instigators, but they question us and believe our story. The locals don't say anything, so this guy must be a higher up in the local thief's guild. Meh, I figure they will come see us soon. We rent a boat to head out to the teleport spot and make our signal. The portal opens about 100 yards from us and we row over and enter. The kobolds are happy for the change of fare and we were going to take the fold-a-boat, but the shaman gets all preachy reminding us that it is a holy artifact and not to scratch the paint. Pfft. We can still rent a boat if we need.
So we decided to search for the other dragon using Donaar's super dragon sense. I think he's just making things up as we go. We all feel more powerful and confident this day. It is decided that we will go underground to see if we can sense anything. The most convenient place, of course is the sewers. We send Donaar down to see if he can sense anything. He does a sense hand-wave and says that it seems to be closer to the shore and west of us near the submarine ride. We head closer to shore and the dragonborn heads back into the sewer. He does his sense thingy and comes up with things still fuzzy. I think the whole sense thing is fuzzy at this point. I start to turn around and Donaar gets jumped by an Annis Hag! It takes half his life in one shot before we can do anything. I scarf a magic mushroom but it doesn't seem to give me the super speed I want. Luckily it doesn't give me smoky eyes either. We manage to pull Donaar out of the sewers and Miles Rex tosses a vial of oil into the sewer and blows up a section of the sewer. Unfortunately it isn't enough to kill the hag, so we hang back until it leaves. We heal Donaar up with a bunch of spells and goodberries. We are a bit shaken up and decide to take five in the streets before moving on. I'm glad I'm upwind of Donaar! Boy does he smell.
Finally a Day of Peace
24 Dravago, 994 YK
23 Dravago, 994 YK
We settle down for a long deserved rest and tie ourselves down before bed. That way, if we fail the Siren's call of the stones we have a fighting chance to have our party members assist us from drowning ourselves.
24 Dravago, 994 YK
Good thing we did because Rex Miles decided it was a great time to go swimming in the morning. He fought us so hard we almost lost him in the depths. Donaar didn't consider that a big loss.
We teleport to the town Miles sees in his fire images and where he saw in the crystal book that the cultist was reading. We head to a large plaza area and read the Delathorn Gazette and find out the name of the town as well as the fact that they have an unusually large number of people missing. Is the town guard here equally as incompetent as the ones in Woodhelm? Or maybe just corrupt.
We head to a place called The Last Raven. Ravens are everywhere and I don't think the species will die off in my lifetime... so Last Raven? The place is all fancy and they turn us away at the door because our clothes look like they lost a fight with the dirt and cuts monster. We decide to capitalize on our rotten appearances and head to the shady part of town. We see a dive called The Shady Ogre's Bar and go in to see if Miles can get kidnapped. He wanders in and I follow along a few minutes later. The only drink available looks and smells like raw sewage. The only other patron of the place is drinking it and Miles buys one for me as I come in. Eying it warily, the barkeep threatens me to drink it. I take a sip, and it tastes pretty good! Miles sees me drink it and he tries it as well. He likes it too. I sip sparingly so I don't get hammered and can keep what little wits I have about me. Miles finishes his drink. A short while later, the others enter the bar. Donaar takes a sip and spits it out in disgust. Same with Wabnuc. It's not that awful, but I stop drinking. In conversing with the barkeep, we learn that some regular named Barika has been missing some time. He's had a hard time adjusting after the war and usually drinks off his problems at the bar.
We head to the docks to see if we can learn anything. The dockmaster tells the tale of Barika that has been missing from the area for a while. He boasted that he was going to land a job at some underwater tour place at the west end of town. He was a regular in the area and helped load/unload the cargo ships.
We decide to go to the bathhouse to get cleaned up and become presentable. It feels so good to get clean. They laundered our clothes and mended them. Now Donaar doesn't smell like blood, sweat, and dragon.
Next, we head to the tour and see if we can learn of Barika's fate. He did show up there for a job, but lacked the refinement to land the job. He was too crude and was sent to a finishing school to lean manners. The tours are extremely pricey... several hundred gold for the four of us to go.
Miles and Wabnuc decide to check out the ship, called a Kwalish Apparatus, while Donaar talks to the tour booking agent. I'm bored, but I have to play the part of Donaar's servant. I just sit there quietly and watch the others. Eventually we leave and head to the royal baths. Donaar sensed a dragon presence there earlier and wants to check it out.
Donaar reports back that this dragon is no help to us and wants him to give a message to Miles. Miles runs off in a huff into the place and comes out complaining that you should never meet your heroes. They are a disappointment. I'm not sure what he means, but whatever.
I'm not sure what the next plan is. Do I hide on the outside of the ship and see where it goes during it's tour? Do we try to sense where the other dragon, Anaphylaxis Azalakardon is using Donaar's dragon sense? That's a decision for someone smarter than me.
Azalakardon's Lair
23 Dravago, 994 YK
23 Dravago, 994 YK
We decide to head through the portal and see if we can enter the temple. We know that there will be a fight as the elementals started appearing when I went through it as a test earlier. We spring the trap and find that there is a plateau covered with a thin skein of plot device water. 4 large vats, 2 water elementals, and 2 water weirds. Convenient Lucky for the weirds, the water on the ground allows them the opportunity to move on the battlefield, instead of being stuck in their vats.
We bypass our usual attempts at parley, draw our weapons, and stick the pointy ends into the creatures. Poor Wabnuc got swallowed again. An elemental grabbed him and dropped him in the deep end of the lake. That gnome has a knack for getting eaten. He must be super tasty to monsters. Kobold reinforcements arrive and two of them manage to save Wabnuc. They have magical helmets that allow one to breath underwater! Anyway, it was a long and brutal fight but at least Swim Shady got out of his fishbowl and stretched his fins in this water wonderland. After the fight, we licked our wounds and continued into the main temple.
We had to perform the ritual meat sacrifice and all of us had to drink a potion, perform interpretive dance, and pull a level at the same time in order to access the inner temple. Overly complicated rituals to enter a temple are such a pain in the backside, but we are in. We descend a tunnel for a while and that stops and branches into three paths. We head up a path only to find more treasure than I've ever seen. A large fortune to be sure, but no dragon. So tempting!
Perhaps the dragon is in another branch. So rude to invite us in and then not be there to greet us! We backtrack and take a different tunnel. This leads us to a dragon egg in a nursery. All kinds of neat to see a real dragon egg, but still no dragon to meet us. So weird. It must be a test! We backtrack and take the third tunnel. This leads to a library—a crystal library. There is a weird looking human man with tentacles sticking out of him in various places. I've heard of this look. I think they call it lovecraftian? It's kinda creepy to me. He completely ignores our attempt to talk with him. How come parley never works?
Well, Miles decides to tackle him to get his attention, and he swivels out of the way. I get super annoyed and stick my rapier in him. That got his attention! He lifts his head out of the crystal and says that the dragon is being tortured nearby, but won't give us the location. He wants us to join his frat—the cult of the dragon below. I've heard of these weirdos, they get monstrous appendages grafted onto themselves in an attempt to become stronger. I have no desire to become a mutant and politely decline. He runs away to fight another day.
Miles gets the brilliant idea to look into the crystal book that the guy was reading, and sees the town that showed up in the teleport room. We decide to head back to the teleport room. We should tie ourselves down and go for a long rest so none of us decides to swim to the bottom of the lake when we fail our attempts to resist the sparkly rock's temptation.
To the Temple of Elemental Dragons
21 Dravago, 994 YK
21 Dravago, 994 YK
We wake up in the morning and head back to the kobold camp. Surprisingly, we make it back unmolested. It seems weird to be with folk my own size, yet somehow pleasant. The tall folk are preparing the boat for our journey and I look in on Snappy. He is so much better trained but still needs a little more training. I have to fork over 7 more gold to pay for his additional food requirements. I think I'll feed the trainer to him as his graduation present for all the gold he's taken from me!
Donaar comes to us and claims that we have to pass a test. I'm never prepared for tests, so I'm used to failing them. Well, this time, I think I aced it! He opened a box up and there was a shiny stone in it. I succeeded on stealing it before he put the lid back down, and then felt compelled to see what was at the bottom of the lake! I started to run there, but my feet were off the ground and I wasn't moving! Put me down, Donaar! Later he explains that I failed the test miserably. What!? Apparently, we were supposed to overcome our will to explore the depths of the lake. This is a trap that is all over the island to discourage thieves. Why all the hating on thieves? We're people too! I decide to risk it tomorrow morning to see if I can go on the adventure tomorrow. Apparently, the gnome and human failed the test as well; and dragonborn are immune to its effects.
22 Dravago, 994 YK
We rise in the morning and Donaar claims there is a potion we can drink if we want a boost to our immunity to the trap compulsion. The potion looks as foul a concoction as Des Ir E's home brewed hooch. I want NO part in drinking that! I decide to try without the potion. I passed! Glad I didn't have to drink that!
We board the ship and head out towards the temple. As we go, we are told that a whirlpool would form and draw us in. That is apparently natural, so don't worry. Right!
Well, needless to say, the whirlpool finds us and then we get attacked by four water weirds! We manage to finally kill them, but one drags Donaar off the ship, and the final one pushes our ship into a tower made up of sea creature bones. It damages the ship a little, but a few kobolds red shirts and I manage to protect the ship by pushing at the tower with one of the oars. We park at a turtle shell reef littered with Eberrron dragonshards
We walk along the reef and find that there are monstrous crabs lining the inside ring of the reef. We decide to stay away, but they really look tasty. We find the entrance into the vortex and inside find a glass gazebo with pillars inside that make portals. I let the others toy with the magical device. Rex calls out when one of the portals looks familiar to him from a recent dream he had. I just roll my eyes—that boy is crazy, or maybe a plaything of a higher power. They continue toying with the device and found a portal to the temple! I volunteer to jump into the portal to see what is there (since I'm absolutely bored watching them play). When I step through though, elementals begin to emerge from the ground! I jump back through the portal and have them close it.
The boys decide to examine the rest of the vortex, so we search around and found a fish hatchery. At least we can eat well. We scaled a tower of bones and found that there are runes on the top that not only allow the tower to teleport within the vortex, but also allow watchers to teleport from tower to tower. Convenient if you are a guardian. It finally dawns on me that this place should be guarded, but it's not. Where did the defenders go? And when? Was it the water weirds and we killed them?
Continuing our search, we find some underwater domed structures perched around a gigantic clam shell. The domes are constructed of coral, but their use is unknown to us. Perhaps it is an arena for dragon entertainment.
We decide to head back to the portal room and take on the elementals at the temple and further our quest.
Why do Men Always want Boats?
20 Dravago, 994 YK
20 Dravago, 994 YK
We finally make it to the temple grounds in search of the boat we need in order to get to the Island of Misfit Dragons. Once there we can submit our offering and hopefully secure some dragon blood. Maybe I can stick its tail while the others distract it and get a small sample. While making it through the maze of a path to the temple proper we are surprised by a hobgoblin ranger with a panther companion. I remember Portia talking about hobgoblin rangers, so the idea doesn't strike me as strange. I just hate getting surprised! He offers to accompany us to the temple as he is seeking out a cult that has taken over the area and is doing bad things. Donaar decides to allow him to join us and we continue towards the temple and the boat.
We turn a bend in the road and there is a group of creatures not a few yards ahead of us. They look super creepy and I just want to kill them and move on. Miles, poor city boy that he is, decides to go and greet them, thinking that they would like to join our cause as well. He finds out that they are members of The cult of Everlasting Life that has just overtaken the temple. Why do these people remind me of the crazies in the Blood of Vol? Miles seems to like the idea of immortality but I prefer to live my life and then enter the sweet embrace of death eventually. Each generation that comes up is worse than the last, and who wants to stick around and see all the laziness first hand? Not me. No thanks. I'll check out before then—and even sooner if Miles keeps this up!
Donaar realizes that the cultists that fail to achieve everlasting life descend to undeath as a booby prize. This gets his dander up and we enter into a war over the temple. We fight the cultists and in one of the battles, they try to steal our kobold right out from under my nose. I fail to see it happen during the battle—I mean three manticores are rather distracting—but I see the drag marks from under the wagon. I rush to follow them and wound the cultist that was dragging him away. Luckily he drops the kobold and heads for the water. I untie the kobold and dust him off. He seems a little upset about the whole kidnapping thing. Pfft, he lived, didn't he?
After the battle, we send the remaining cultists to the four winds. We find the boat and it is too large to remove from the cellar it is in! We are the only ones getting a boat too big to move into the water! Why do I hang out with this crew? The kobold laughs, pushes a button and the boat magically transforms into a large briefcase. Now isn't that clever. I let one of the tallfolk horse that thing around.
We make camp in the temple with the idea of a long restful night so the casters can relearn their spells. I talk a bit with Swim and he seems to be satisfied with his tour of the world so far.
Oh, Gods! That's a Big Frog!
20 Dravago, 994
20 Dravago, 994 YK
We wake up early and Donaar goes to talk to the kobold Priests of the Three. He's looking for information on where we can find a dragon to siphon off some of its blood. I think it's a crazy idea...like any dragon will willingly give up its blood for us...but hey, Donaar is of dragon lineage, so stranger things have happened. More importantly, I go shopping to see if I can get my clawfoot hides tannned and made into a saddle and maybe some armor as well. I get the process started, they say it will take a couple of days. Whatever. Then I go to the stables to get Snappy some training. 1 Galifar per day seems pricey, but I can't convince them to lower the price. Seems that kobolds aren't swayed by halfling charm. I stable Snappy with them anyways because Donaar came back with some story that the kobold dragon has been missing about a year and now we need to blah... blah.. blah... All I know is now we have another quest to go boar hunting for food to offer up on a trip to an island someplace.
Maybe I can get a boar to feed Snappy. We go out hunting and find a few boars milling about and eating. As I'm sneaking up to surprise one, a huge bear jumps out and kills a boar in one swipe! As a boar runs screaming past my, I stick my rapier into it and end up killing it a few seconds later. Because we almost lost the boars, I stuck an arrow into the bear to teach it a lesson. Well, he goes all crazy on us and we end up killing it. Huh. It was a werebear because it turned into a human upon death. Oh, well. One less human taking up space on this planet. We also ended up killing all the boars, so Snappy will get a bunch of food. We bring the boars back to Qn'anhyrd the cleric and he says that one of them will make a passable sacrifice to the dragon. I bring the rest of the boar meat to the stables. Stupid kobold trainer won't lower the price even though I provided food for him for days! Damn, he bargains hard—I wonder if he has halfling ancestry.
The priest decides that we can go to the island now, so we pack up and head back out. We are jumped by three froghemoths. See what I did there? We manage to kill them, but Wabnuc ends up getting swallowed. Poor creature gets eaten by everything. Frogs, rugs, you name it. Wabnuc loots the neck sacs from the frogs babbling about making floaters for Adam. Sounds too technical for me. Whatever floats his boat...
The Quest for Dragon Blood
19 Dravago, 994 YK
19 Dravago, 994 YK
We are headed to the world tree to see if we can tree-walk to Lake Galifar and take weeks off of our travel time. It's about 500 miles from here and this poor halfling doesn't want to walk all that way. Thinking of my halfling cousins of the Talenta plains makes me wish I had a clawfoot mount. I notice a flash of blue in the tall grass as we head out to the sapling I saw in the distance atop the spire. I do my best to sneak up to it and see nothing. All of a sudden, of all things, a clawfoot pounces on me and takes a big bite out of my hide! I suck up the pain of the wound and immediately set out to tame him. He's the biggest of the herd of them that set upon our party. I lure him with sweet talk and meats from my stores. Eventually convincing him to a lead. The others are killed by the rest of the group and we harvest the meat and skins from them. I call mine Snappy and set out to tame him for riding. He's not having it yet, but it's a long walk to the lake.
When we arrive at the sapling, it doesn't look cursed like the other. I am surprised I didn't think it would be, but everyone else was apparently worried. Donaar opened the tree with a moving dance of his people. It was beautiful to watch and added a side to him that I didn't know existed. Dragonborn are a very interesting people. Once we looked inside, it was a maze of tree paths. I have no idea which way we would go in there, and frankly, looking in there made my head hurt. I'll leave it to Donaar to find the way.
We get through the tree and end up near a large lake. It has all of the features of being where we want to go, but we are not sure we are where we wanted to go. Maybe there is a local we could ask. I notice a blighted area and think that maybe a dragon lives there. We head to the spot and see a humanoid being swallowed up by a shambling mound. We manage to distract the mound enough that the creature escapes: It's a kobold! But he runs off in the distance rather than helping us fight. We manage to kill it. It had a Khyber shard, fey stones, and a wand for Miles.
We head off in search of the brave kobold. Maybe he is a member of the Cult of the Three that we are looking for. We follow his tracks to a small campsite. Miles goes in and manages to secure us a campsite at the edge of the area. He wants us to camp about a mile away. Donaar isn't having that and heads to the camp to talk to them. They wonder why we are camped so far away and we mention that Miles was scared of them and told us to stay away. They laugh, and one of them calls Miles a coward. Miles takes offense to this and calls the kobold out for a duel. In short order, Miles has his clock cleaned by the kobold (known as Cobol). We all laugh that he is out cold and celebrate with a clawfoot meat feast.
We rest peacefully that night. My sleep was briefly interrupted by the chime of a small bell. I somehow feel stronger than before.
Moving Right Along...
14-18 Dravago 994 YK
14 Dravago 994 YK
After talking with the fey in the maze area, they tell us that we need some blood from various dragons to strengthen the blood line for the crystal. The closest dragon lives near lake Galifar 500 miles northwest of us, but they haven't heard from it lately. They told us to contact the Seekers of Thir (a bunch of kobolds that worship the original three dragons) to help us find the dragon. The dragon is probably near the Eldeen Reaches where my sister lives. They also tell us we can force the elemental out of the dirt if we place a ring of the red shards around it.
On our way back to town, we are attacked by four undead chipmunks. We kill them and Miles loots the bodies. He got a vial of T-virus so now he can make his own pet zombie.
16 Dravago 994 YK
We get to town late so we head to the inn for dinner and a rest. The innkeeper seems shocked to see us and says we've been gone two days. She thought we were going to stiff her and was about to sell our belongings to make up the money! We paid her the back rent and for tonight. She asked if we found any moon peppers for her. I told her we looked but couldn't find any. While eating in the common room, we hear about the ghost house is more active than normal. We don't have time for that, so we head to our rooms to sleep it off.
17 Dravago 994 YK
I tell Donaar to send a letter to the rail camp foreman to keep him updated.
Donaar, Miles, and I go to the local church to see if they can remove the curse on the local tree. They tell us the local guards freed the skull that we brought in last week. I love stupid town guards! Miles asks about the curse, but they say that they can't remove it. It happened on the Day of Mourning, so I claim that the world tree now has Mourning Sickness.
We get ready to leave for the other tree I saw at the top of the obelisk. Wabnuc want's his shiny metal giant, so we decide to get a cart and have it delivered to Barrel-Dwarf's camp. We are using Wabnuc's pet giant to pull the cart.
Barrel-dwarf is upset that the frog-men are tossing his camp every night. He says it has something to do with their eggs being nicked. Whatever, let him deal with them.
We load up the cart and get on our way. It's boring sitting in the cart, but uneventful. Near evening, we roll up on four half-ogres around a fire roasting a dire wolf. They seem awful interested in our metal giant. As we leave, I keep my eyes peeled for them following us. Wabnuc sees them off in the distance, and I say we should ambush them! We set up a little trap and the stupid things fall right into it! I manage to kill one that climbed onto the giant. We loot the bodies and get 250 gp, 2 sp, and 10 cp. (62 gp, 5 sp, and 7 cp each). We decide to take to make camp for the night and make it through the night with no problems.
I was talking with Des at the campfire and he suggested that I look for a clawfoot mount. Then I might be able to see above the grass. Ha ha! I can see over the grass, unless it's too tall. Hmm. Maybe he is right. I'll ask him to see if he can lure a nice tall male with his incessant crooning tomorrow.
Saving the World, Part {I can't count that high}
12 Dravago, 994YK
12 Dravago, 994 YK
Those bandits had no idea what hit them! We cleaned them up and decided to rest in our new place of refuge. During Donaar's watch, a bunch of corpse eaters came out to play. Of course we were too tired to pile the bodies outside of camp. I guess the gods like to remind us of our failings. Well they start to attack us and they climb all over the tall folk. I had to blast one off of my "master's" shoulders that decided to suckle on him. I also took one off of Wabnuc, I'm not sure he's the same after getting carpeted.
We decide to head back to town since there is no sleeping here with all the critters. We decide to take all of the loot , and the lone surviving ballista. Our plan is to give it to the guards to mend our relationship with them. I don't know why. I agree with Donaar that they are sorely incompetent—just the way I like them.
When we return to town and drop off the ballista, the guards seem confused and unsure what to do with it. I'm not sure that they really know how to use it...typical. We then run off to the merchant's guild to collect our ransom for returning their stolen goods. They claim that all of the goods are not there. Hello, we took the loot back from bandits! I'm sure they already divvied some of it up and spent it on hookers and beer. They grumble about it and only pay us some of the reward. This is why I don't do things for strangers.
We head back to the inn and find a letter waiting for us telling us that we are dumb as doorknobs and that we need to seek our answers in the forest. Although I resemble that, I can't keep from feeling somehow insulted. We climb the obelisk and I take another look around. I don't see anything but one of the mages casts a ritual and we finally can see the locations of two other buttons. I resist the temptation to press the button on the obelisk again, and we climb down and seek the other buttons. One is underground and we decide to go down. I slip down into the tunnel and am on point. I sneak ahead and signal the coast is clear. When the team loudly follows, they wake the dead and stuff literally flies out of the walls to attack them! They need saving again. So I come back and make all stabby-like.
After clearing the monsters, Rex Miles presses the button and has a hallucinogenic dream about the other buttons. We decide to check out the other button in a field and that's when Donaar decides to push all three. No way I am going all loopy of magic buttons so I watch as he pushes all three. Once he hits the third one, he finds a hedge mage. We follow him to an area of the forest and he disappears in front of our eyes walking into a tree. I close my eyes and attempt to do the same and end up with a sore nose and a bruised ego.
It doesn't seem like Donaar is coming back for us any time soon, so the rest of us decide we need to press all the buttons to gain entry. We circle back a third time and press all the buttons. We can see the maze too! We climb into the tree and end up in a spirit world with a huge shrub maze. I'm not sure where it came from but I hear a far off voice calling "Here's Johnny!" It makes my spine chill. We end up getting through the maze and to a garden Portia would love. It is a puzzle of course. We end up solving it and the fairie dragons and Nerine end up being there! We try to give Nerine her staff, but she says we need it still. Apparently red dragon's blood is needed but it has been thinned over time. I'm not sure what to do now.
Little Orphan Army
11 Dravago, 994 YK
11 Dravago, 994 YK
We break into the next room to see what evil tentacled creature would be there. There were only a few spiders and we squished them. There is a door at the top of the stairs and appears to be locked, but there is no lock to pick! Our human decides to heat up the doorknob. We hear a voice cry out in pain. We burst through the door and see a young human boy hold his hand in pain and a wooden sword in the other. Rex foolishly hands the boy a gold piece! What a tool. A copper would have been better. Apparently, the orphanage is just a regular building in town and not a front for some shady business. The boys argue a bit about using the children as little trap springers in the dungeons. Donaar puts a halt to that talk. Holier-than-thou muckety muck.
We head back to the inn and Rex reaps the rewards of giving the kid a Galifar. His purse gets robbed.
That evening, I don a will-o-the-wisp costume and we go hunting. Dragon-boy doesn't think it will work, but we manage to lure two in along with a flaming skull! The skull was quite a fight. We barely manage to defeat it and find that unless it is purified, it will respawn. The skull mast have charmed Rex, because he tried to save it from its final fate. Donaar had to carry it afterwards. We rushed back to town and hand it over to the local church with instructions to purify it ASAP.
Hopefully they are more competent than the local guards.
Side Quests Gone Wild
11 Dravago, 994 YK
11 Dravago, 994 YK
I rise early to see what I can see. Wabnuc is still tinkering with the fake dragonshard so we are stuck for another day at least before pulling our heist. Donaar suggests that we write back to the Train Gang in order to give them an update on our progress. I agree, but I'm not that great at spelling so I let him take care of it. We decide to take on the Will-o'-the-Wisps in the area with our new vials to collect our proof of kill. Apparently there was a reward at the Adventurer's Guild that we didn't think to check for. Here is our todo list for today:
- Send letter to Cabin 15 Camp
- Have Wabnuc and Miles case the prosthetic guy's shop
- Collect some proof of Will-o'-the-Wisp kills for reward money
Before I get out of the inn, the proprietor (Juliana Tarkas) looks frantic. I asked her what was the matter and she said that there was a contest to create a dish out of the local delicacy (Moon Peppers). The winning dish will be served in the local restaurant as a special, and the creator gets a cut of the profits. She asks us to secure her about a plant's worth of peppers.
Donaar and I head to the gnome enclave to sent off the letter he wrote and then head toward the Adventurer's Guild. On the way, I notice a thirst trap of buff and shirtless men headed toward the green in the center of town. Well, now, how is a young halfling girl like myself supposed to ignore that!? I convince Donaar to come with me and find out what is going on. It is a wrestling match with a grand prize of a +1 Flametongue Sword! I convince Donaar that the sword is something a prince would wear and that he should join in on the fun. He reluctantly agrees and signs up. We then head to the Guildhouse and see the following tasks:
- Goblin Infestation
- Darkroot for Hair Restoration--Portia told me that darkroot grows near troll lairs.
- Mysterious Tower
- Warrant for Rex
- Missing Merchant
- Poisonous Plants
- Haunted House
- Missing Artifact from the Museum
- Moonstone Mine Overrun by Monsters
- Missing Heirloom
- Crypt
On the return trip to the inn, I notice a small human girl crying. I walk over to ask what is the matter and she says that her kitty Whiskers is missing. She last saw it near the well in town. As we are talking to her, Miles and Wabnuc arrive after having cased the artificer's shop. The three men decide that we need to rescue the cat (men are so easily swayed by a female's tears). They send me down the well to see if the cat is there. I get to the waterline and there is no cat, but I spot a recess in the well that I can probably swim to. I decide to dive in and barely make it to the area, and find that there is air! I can't see the cat, but I can hear the sounds of a frightened cat in the distance. Heading towards the sound, I see the cat and it is being stalked by two red lizard things. As they see me, they charge me and spit at me. So rude; especially since they are spitting balls of fire at me! I telepathically tell Miles to send the crew down and yank furiously on my rope. While waiting for my heroes to arrive, I eat one of my super speed mushrooms. All of a sudden, it is completely foggy in the area and I can't see my hands in front of my eyes. Am I moving so fast that the water is vaporizing around me? Unsure, I swing at one of the Fire Newt Warriors. I completely miss as they are nothing but shadows in the fog. Luckily the rest of the group arrives and dispatch the newts. I grab the cat and send it up to Miles (who stayed at the top of the well). Everything is still foggy but there is nothing to be done for the weather.
While I'm returning the cat, Donaar and Wabnuc check out the area and find several small animals and pets in cages along the wall. There is a conveyor belt that leads to a small hole in the wall. When I return they say that the fog is coming out of my eyes and hanging around me. This better stop before the wrestling event starts! Which reminds us that we need to get there fast. When we climb to the top of the well, the girl gives us a reward for finding her cat: a Bag of Beans (9 beans).
Lucky for me, the fog spell wears off just as the match starts. Miles and Donaar are both in the contest and as I am Donaar's aide, I root for him. After several grueling matches, Donaar comes out the victor and wins the sword!
After the match, the group decides to investigate the cavern under the well and see where the conveyer belt goes. Of course, they send yours truly up the conveyer to see what it leads to. At the top of the conveyer, I look into the next room and see masses of tentacles. Figuring it is more than a halfling can take on alone, I scarper back down to the group and tell them what I saw. Donaar decides that tentacles are no match for his scales and metal armor and heads up there. He finds a whole lot of trouble! He claims that the tentacles are fiendish and jumps in to take them on! There is 1 Carrion Crawler, 1 Intellect Devourer, and 1 Nupperibo waiting to greet him. He barely survives the first few seconds of their welcome embrace and Swim Shady has to toss him a bunch of healing to keep him standing. Glad I didn't jump in, or I'd be fleeing The Devourer in the afterlife. We manage to prevail eventually and find that these creatures are being fed the small animals in the cages. During a search of the area we notice a section of the wall that is shoddily crafted. Like someone put these creatures in there and walled it up fast. Donaar manages to shoulder the wall down and it leads to an unremarkable storeroom. Future investigations await.
Add a few more items to the to do list:
- [ ] See if we can get a plant's worth of moon peppers from a local plant for the proprietor of the Inn, Juliana Tarkas
- Wrestlemania in the center of town at noon. Prize is a +1 Flametongue Sword. Donaar won the grand prize!
- Find Elsa's lost kitty
- Explore the area where the fire newts were
When will Wabnuc finish the shard so that we can fix the world?
I'm Kind-of Confused
10-11 Dravago, 994 YK
10 Dravago, 994 YK
We head back to town for a full rest and found a dead horse in the road with a dead rider. A couple of shrubs and a creature tried to take a fancy chest. Oh, so fancy, I needed it and got fixated on it. I run to grab it and some creatures attack. This time it is 2 shrubs (thorn blights) and a creature riding a shrub (Vegepygmy Chief). We killed them ded and proceeded on our way. Opening the chest, it is full of linens and some coins I pocket (55 gp, 10 sp, and 9 cp). I find some uncommon glamourweave (add 1d4 to persuasion checks) amongst the linens. We bring the chest back to town and place it in my room at the in.
In order to avoid any hassles with the local constables, we report the dead merchant to them and they send someone out to bring back the remains. They ask us to post a job at the local adventurer's guild. Donaar and I accept and I go run the errand while Donaar goes back and rests like the aristocracy he is... I notice that I am being shadowed by the bumbling city watch so I shake them off quickly and make my way to the guild by the back routes. I show up at the guild and post the bounty. It is for Rex! Ha! City boy got himself in trouble...for 100 galifars! Maybe I can turn him in if he upsets me again. While at the adventurers guild, I notice a bounty for rats in the bakery basement for 50 galifars. I figure we can use the gold for an easy rat kill and bring it back for the crew.
11 Dravago, 994 YK
Turns out Rex knew he was wanted and changed is identity to Miles Asher. Figures he'd pick a name with a fire theme. Anyway, we head to Dough Flow for some extermination. Turns out they aren't ordinary rats. They were smarter than I am! Big brains on their heads. We eventually kill them all and collect our 50 gal. We do some investigations into the fake arms and talk to the guy that makes them, Parack. Says like he's been in business for over a decade at the Fire Spire. He has a couple of robot dogs posting guard to his basement door.
Not much else to report today. So we head for bed.
Adding a few words to make this wonky HTML code work.
Prison Life is Not for Me
10 Dravago, 994 YK
10 Dravago, 994 YK
On our way to Nahanial's lair, we spotted a croaked farmer in a field. Poor guy looked like he was scared when he bit it. He had long gashes on him that looked unnaturally sharp; not like an animal's claw marks anyways. We decided to bury him and when done, Rex took the shovel. Must think it has magical properties or something. Continuing on, I spot one of those mushrooms Portia needs for her bear. I sneak in like a pro and snagged that mushroom! I turn to sneak away and trip over the vine blight's vines! HELP! There is a vine blight and three twig blights. I think a second about my situation and decide to try the ring Nahanial gave me. I concentrate and sure enough, I charmed that nasty vine blight! I ask him to give me all his shrooms and then scarper off so we don't have to kill him. Score! I got 7 mushrooms for my efforts and he shuffles off. Saved my skin again! Thank the 12 I'm a halfling. At Nahanial's we learn that the gem in the obelisk is a fake! Gotta admire that thievery scheme. Apparently someone with a lot of technical skill would have to have pulled it off. Probably some artificer in town. Wait, what about that guy in town that's making all the
Shifty Orcs and Their Schemes
10 Dravago, 996 YK
10 Dravago, 994 YK
Well, we're sitting in a ruined tower after a long day. I volunteer for second shift lookout. Once I start my shift, I notice two dogs come up to Adam Smasher. They are huge Shadow Mastiffs. I immediately think of that sneaky orc Vorp? no, Norm? Vorg! He comes out of the darkness and checks out Adam. I overhear him say "hmm, looks like this one is active." Very suspicious.
They move off out of sight, so I decide to follow them. I don't bother waking up Donaar because he's as stealthy as an earthquake and he can sleep while I investigate. I follow the orc and his puppies around the bend of the tower wall and suddenly they disappear. I track his footprints to the wall and they seem to continue into it. Not being the bravest of halflings against 2 dogs bigger than me and an orc literally 4 times my size, I decide to go back to camp and finish my watch.
Waking Donaar up, I tell him about Vorg and his dogs. He assures me he will not draw attention to himself and proceeds to patrol for his shift. I fall asleep to the thud of his feet pacing around.
In the morning, we tell the others about Vorg and we all decide to investigate this hidey hole. Looking at the wall, someone tries to touch the wall and finds that it is illusionary. We find a short set of steps and a door at the bottom. I inspect it for traps and notice there is something magical about it. Knowing nothing about magic, I defer to Rex and Wabnuc. Wabnuc waves his wrenches at it and proclaims its clear of magical traps, so I get down to picking the lock. I think an 8-year-old could pick it, it came unlocked so easy. We open the door and find an underground facility with valves and pipes and windows too high for me to see out of. Girl, aren't they all?
Inside the windowed room, the tall folks say there are 2... no 4 floating balls about the size of a head zooming around. Someone smashes the window near us and we immediately get attacked by the floating heads. They actually look like that but have 4 eyeballs on the end of antennae on their head. Kind of like a snail's eyestalks. Well, call me crazy, but the eyes cast magic spells! After a brief fight, we manage to kill them all. Wabnuc cuts some of the eyestalks off mumbling something about making a weapon with them. Are all magic-users a little bit nuts?
Klaus looks at some of the chambers in the room and finds a lot of the local leaders in there. The chambers are hooked to a gizmo in the center of the room that appears to be sucking all the memories out of them. Wabnuc comes up with a conspiracy theory that shifters are taking over the town and sucking the memories of the townsfolk to release them somewhere else with complete amnesia. How the orc is involved I don't know. Wabnuc and Rex also decide to take the memory sucker block (calling it a construct heart)—whatever... crazy mages.
There is a magically locked door at the back of the room that holds some guard golems and a decayed-looking adult beholder! I want no part of that monster. It can disintegrate you with one look! Rex flipped his mind and is attacking the door relentlessly. We can't seem to break him of it, so the group decides to head out before someone comes back looking at all the damage we did in the room. Rex finally catches up to us looking like he has one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel. No one wants to heal him, though. Even Swim Shady didn't want to!
We make it back to Klaus' camp and park Adam back against the tree as we found him. The camp looks like a tornado went through it...Klaus looked like this happens all the time and blamed it on some local Grungs. We decide to head to the Faerie Dragon for some help on getting another red Khyber shard. I take second watch again and fall quickly asleep until I am woken for my shift. Nothing unusual to report, and I sleep until morning after my shift ends.
I'm On Top of the World!
8-9 Dravago 994 YK
8 Dravago 994 YK
We decide to lick our wounds and sleep for the night. I have second shift. Nothing happened during my shift so I just get back to sleep. All of a sudden I am awakened by De. Just as a bunch of monsters attack. Way to wait until the last second to warn us. The creatures are called Steeders and look like large spiders about the size of a dog. I wonder if I could use one as a mount... Well, anyways they get the drop on De and Barrel Oakenaxes. Both are hurt real bad and Barrel drops to the ground. I run over, use my miraculous skills as a healer and barely manage to stabilize him so he doesn't bleed to death. Then Swim Shady does one better than me and heals him. But he takes another pincer to the barrel and drops again. Poor thing is pretty useless in a fight.
After a long battle we barely manage to kill the spiders and luckily no one dies! Even worse for the wear, we manage to get our nights rest and recuperate for our morning adventures. I need to talk to that elf...worst sentry ever!
9 Dravago 996 YK
We decide to head to the obelisk today and take precautions. I'm out sneaking like a... Sneaky Little Thing That Sneaks, and we grab the attention of some flying construct. Not sure how it saw us and our 15-foot tall golem but it did. It was a crazy looking thing. It had five arms! We handled it pretty well and Rex was pretty excited to get one to try and reprogram. Unfortunately for him it disintegrated when we finished it off.
A while later we made it to the obelisk. It was tall and made of stone (Rex says it is made out of dolomite). It's kind of a squarish tower thing with a pointed top and three gems near the top. The gems are dragon shards and pretty large (golden, red, and black). The red one (an Eberron shard) looks pretty bad. I wouldn't even try to steal it because you would make no money on the resale.
We know that Eberron shards are found in the ground in egg-shaped stones or marshy areas. Great, we get to slog through a swamp looking for stone eggs.
We also want to get rid of Twiggy's staff, so the group asked me to climb to the top of the obelisk and see if I can spot another World Tree sprout. I easily scarper up the tower and find myself on the top of the world! I can see forever! Then I notice a big red button on the top of the obelisk. I resist my innate curiosity and don't press the button. Man, that kills me. I really want to know what it does. I spend some time sightseeing pretending that I'm as tall as the golem. I spot a tree matching the description of the World Tree about one-and-a-half to two days travel from here.
I climbed back down and let the company know what I saw. Decision times for those smarter than I!
Statues in the Woods
8 Dravago 994 YK
8 Dravago, 994 YK
We were walking in the woods and I saw a huge statue in the distance. After talking with the rest of the crew, we decided to investigate. After a while we get close enough to investigate and find the crazy from town, Dwarf-In-A-Barrel! He is camped at the foot of what looks like a large statue. He claims it's some guardian for the world tree and also claims his name is Klaus. I still think he is on Melange, but the others seem to trust him. And I am starting to warm to their company. Not sure why, but I find it easier to trust the fey more than my own companions. Must be Portia rubbing off on me.
Speaking of Portia, I haven't found another one of her stupid mushrooms since Rex toasted the first. I'll keep my eyes peeled, but Barrel-guy claims they don't grow close to the obelisk. We'll see about that.
The smarty-pants human and gnome looked at the world tree sprout and found that it is charred and magically compelled to stay that way. Dragon-boy claims its the work of the Silver Flame. They say it is locked with a blood curse. Whatever.
The barrel Klaus says that the statue is a construct that will protect the tree, but it needs lightning to get going. Too bad the one we are trying to free is stuck in the ground. We don't have the zaps for the statue, so we head off in search of the obelisk. Klaus promises to help us get to the obelisk but claims there are constructs here that can be tough. It's ok. I'll just hide behind my personal meat shield and stab as I get the chance. Plus Glub-Glub wants to keep moving.
Glub-Glub needs a better name. Spitballing a few ideas here to ask him later:
- Algae B. Eater
- Lake Skywalker
- Swim Shady (my personal favorite)
So we are walking on the path and Klaus claims that there are constructs under the ground watching us. So, I start sneaking like a thing that sneaks so we don't get heard. Of course the paladin and sorcerer trip over each other and make enough noise to wake the undead! So much for surprise. A few stalks pop up and I jump on the barrel, set Glub on the barrel between my feet and launch a couple of arrows into these things. It didn't do anything but make them mad. They charge us and the only one that can hurt them is Klaus! He has some interesting-looking axes. He tosses one and I jump off and grab it. Having no idea how to use it, I make a few swings at the creature and completely miss. Such an odd weapon weight. I end up tossing it to the paladin as Klaus gets clobbered and run over to use my healing skills to keep him from The Keeper's clutches. He seemed upset that none of us had adamantine weapons. I'd keep the ax if I could hit with it.
We decided to go back to the statue for the evening to heal and regroup. I took a couple of pounds of adamantine from one of the kills to make a dagger, and found a bunch of adamantine arrows on the way back to camp. The gnome took the cores off of the kills and the human dragged one of the burrowers back to camp. The gnome got the statue powered up and it follows him around like a lost puppy. I'll look for more adamantine weapons in the morning. I'm tired!
Woodhelm
7 Dravago, 994 YK
7 Dravago, 994 YK
I prized a small amount of gold and gems from the three corpses before the fourth managed to inspect them. He complained that they said they were richer than they apparently are. I had to supress a snicker on that one!The paladin offers our protection on the remainder of the journey to Woodhelm. I manage to sneak a few potions off of the alchemest and a forgery kit off of the scroll peddler. We have an uneventful rest of the journey to Woodhelm, and drop the last merchant off.
We arrive in town and head for the inn and some food. On the way, we meet a strange group of characters. One was a dwarf in a barrel. Literally clad in a barrel he claims is fused to his body. He goes by the name Klaus, and smells like Lutefisk. Probably the contents of the barrel before he wore it. He claims the town is charmed and that the bakery is responsible for this charm. Ho-kay!
When we finally get to the inn, we sit and have a nice dinner of a bird. The seasoning was done very well, and it was delicious! Wile we are eating, a stranger stops at our table and claims he knows the wereabouts of Sparkles' sire! I, for some strange reason, leap at the chance to follow him.
After dinner, we decide to go to the dragon. Rex is all scared becuase it is nearing evening and woods are scary to city boys. Nahaniel (Sparkles' sire) told us a bunch of stuff about the town and then said that the obelisk needs repair.
We head back from the forest and we encounter a glowing orb floating in the air next to a scarecrow. Rather odd. The paladin tries to detect evil and finds that the scarecrow is an undead! We attack in and find ourselves outmatched. We bravely scarper off to fight another day. The paladin really takes this zombie scarecrow thing to heart and swears vengence upon it.
We get back to town and meet with Wabnuc and Rex. We make plans to head to the obelisk in the morning.
What a Journey, Flumph!
5-7 Dravago, 994 YK
5 Dravago, 994 YK
We woke to a soggy day, just as the foreman predicted. Work detail was cancelled for the day and so we were left to our own devices. Boring! Donaar and I decided to check up on the place I left the bread for the invisible pranksters. The bread was gone and in its place were a ring of mushrooms growing in the soil. I quickly harvested them and assuming that they were yummy, I ate one. The coolest thing happened! Time almost stopped for me. I could watch the raindrops fall so slowly I could easily dodge them and stay dry. Donaar also seems to have stopped moving, so I decided to check on the elemental traps we had set the day before. I had seen a glowing ball of light from those areas earlier. As I raced up to the hill, laughing at the slow raindrops, I found the trap in shambles and strange colors in the rock that the trap was sitting on. I ran to the other trap and there was an angry-looking lightning elemental in that one. Success! I decided to return to the statue of Donaar and see what he wanted to do.
When I got back to Donaar, the rain started to return to its normal speed and he was slowly moving. I told him that the trap we set was exploded and another captured an elemental. He decided to get Wabnuc and the three of us should go find Zelcer. We found Zelcer and explained the situation. We took Zelcer up to the hill, dodging the shrieker mushrooms again, and he was so mad at us. We put the trap on a piece of lodestone, and apparently that was a bad thing. He just told us to put the stupid traps on a rocky hill, and never said anything about lodestone. So he's mad at us for his own mistake.
Zelcer says that we have to try and suck the elemental out of the rock with some big coil thingy. I didn't understand half of it, but he seemed grumpy about it. He mentioned something about needing power too, and I reminded him of the other trap with a live elemental in it. He seemed a little better about things after that. I think he was trying to get rid of us, so he asked us to check the placement of the other two traps to make sure they weren't on this special type of rock. One of them looked like it was on a good rock, according to the gnome, and the other was on a bad rock. The rocks all looked the same to me but we moved the one trap to a better rock. Nothing else of interest happened the rest of the day.
6 Dravago, 994 YK
Baker's Night!
The next morning we woke to the sounds of screaming! Can no one keep quiet around here until I've had my morning tea? I dressed quickly and scurried to the sounds of shrieking. Apparently one of the stable hands was saying that a horse went missing and they followed a trail and found it being eaten by crazy looking tentacle monsters. Right... tentacle monsters. Since we are the most adventurous, the five of us from Cabin 15 (we really should come up with a name for our group) decided to gear up and investigate. Sure enough, we followed the path and there were tentacle monsters eating a horse! I recognized them as flumphs—thanks for drilling that info into me, Portia. I knew that their colors indicated their mood, but not much else. We decided to take them out at range because none of us knew their strengths and weaknesses. Apparently, they are able to spray out a noxious odor and Donaar and Rex smell like chamber pots after the encounter. They went to take a bath in the river for an hour or so, and the rest of us went back to camp.
In the afternoon, a caravan arrived with some acolytes of the silver flame in tow. Once they stopped, my name was called. How would they know me? I don't have any warrants out for my arrest that I know of, so I raised my hand and stood on tiptoe to be noticed. Apparently I have mail—phew! I pocketed the letter for later and watched the acolytes bless the bread.
We went up the hill to the messed up trap and tried to extract the elemental from the stone. The big coil thing was hooked to the other elemental and it started buzzing and creaking. Nothing was happening and as I looked around, I noticed a path of flowers appear. Donaar, Rex, and I decided to follow the path. It led us to the shrieker mushroom hill but not close enough to set them off. The path ended and we floated over a patch of grass to a small dirt patch. In front of the patch was a nymph and a faerie dragon! The faerie dragon, Sparkles, was super nice and appreciated all the things I'd done for the pixies. He mentioned that I gave out good bread, so I gave him one of my rolls. He loved it! He told us that the strange lights were polluting the forest. We told him that we were trying to get the elemental out of the rock, but he thought that his father might know a surefire way to get it out. His father, Nahanial, lives near Woodhelm. He also gave us a fish in a bowl and a staff to give to Nerine. It seemed like hours had passed, but by the time we got back to Zelcer, it was as if no time had passed at all.
We explained to Zelcer about the information given to us about the elemental and how to free it. We even showed him the goldfish and staff. He looked at us as though we were sun crazed, but decided that getting rid of us for a few days might be in his best interest and allowed us to go look for Nahanial. I went to make an apple pie with the apples the pixies helped find. Apparently, apple pie is Nahanial's favorite and to prepare for the journey.
That evening, we all lined up for our tasty pastries and lo and behold, our dog hunter orc was there with a wand checking everyone in line. His one remaining dog, shied away from me and he recognized me because of that. He pointed the wand at me and seemed disappointed that it didn't do anything. Tough break for him. Later it reacted to one of the cooks. Apparently the wand finds changelings, and the cook was one. I got my tasty treats and headed down the line. Later that night, I read my letter from Portia. Apparently she needs some herbs for her bear or 80 galifars to buy some—like I have that kind of coin.
7 Dravago, 994 YK
On the Road Again
We headed out with the caravan to Woodhelm. I noticed that nasty orc in one of the wagons, and took the last one in line to be away from him and his stupid dog. On the way we heard a cry for help in the woods and there were 4 humans being attacked by little frog people. They looked like merchants, and seemed to be losing the battle. We decided to help them, and found the little froggies to be quite tough opponents. Rex killed a few of them and a merchant by setting fire to a tree and having it fall on them. My bow shots just weren't cutting it today. I may need to practice a bit with it. Overall we finally managed to kill most of the frogmen and chase off the rest, but only one of the four humans survived.
I started to loot the bodies and found some tasty wine and other items I haven't identified yet. When we stopped to help the humans, the rest of the caravan kept on to Woodhelm so we are going to have to catch up to them.
Lightning Rail Chain Gang
3-4 Dravago, 994 YK
Nothing like conscripted work detail to ruin a good time. But if I skip out of it, the consequence is death; so off I go to deal with untrustworthy strangers. I get assigned to cabin 15 of the rail car I happened to board. This is a rather motley crew. The first thing I notice is a huge dragonborn. He's over twice my height and covered in white scales. He's wearing heavy armor so is most likely a meat shield. It is so rare to see a dragonborn, my first thought is to hang near him, and I can hide while people are goggling at him. Maybe nick a few purses while he's got their eye.
There are a few other “talls” in the cabin: An elf in light armor that has a windbag over his shoulder that makes the oddest squeaks and squeals as he moves and a human that looks jumpy. Probably a city boy on his first trip out of doors. There is also a dwarf in leather that looks like a fellow cutpurse. He is quietly sitting and looking out the window. I'll need to keep my eye on him to make sure he doesn't cut in on my marks.
Finally, there is one other small; a gnome. An untrustworthy gnome. I'll have to keep my secrets to myself around him. No need giving him and his kind any more information than they need. He is tinkering with some small mechanical device but I can see he is listening in on the words spoken and surreptitiously cataloging everything going on in the cabin.
As I head to my seat, the foreman—a surly looking dwarf—comes in and notices the gnome and the human. He asks after their professions and they reply artificer and sorcerer. He looks pleasantly surprised and relieved and assigns us to stone marker detail. We are to catalog any damaged stones and mark fallen trees and other debris that would make the train unsafe for passage. This sure beats setting up camp and digging latrines and I breathe a small sigh of relief.
After a few hours we arrive at the camp site and debark. We are given parchment and quills and head up the rail line. The stones all look round to me and I quickly get bored. I pick a few up for the gnome and the human gets all upset saying it will wreck the train. Oh well, I'll scout about and see if I can entertain myself. It's a pleasant afternoon, and as its getting dark, we hear a gods-awful screech. We run to see what is about (I'm behind the meat shield of course) in the woods. It appears to be a honey badger stuck in a rope sling in a tree. We decide to save it, and just as I cut it out of the trees a bone-chilling howl occurs and I nearly die of fright. It takes a lot to scare me, but the shadow mastiffs howl seems to do the trick. It also paralyses the honey badger. One of the dogs grabs it and starts to take off with it, but the sorcerer puts one of the dogs to sleep. The other turns and attacks us. I hide behind the wall of scales and sneak over to the sleeping mastiff. I give it my best shot to the kidneys, but it isn't enough to kill it outright. I step behind a tree and hide as it wakes up. The others are harrying the first dog and we end up finally killing the one that was asleep. There is a far off whistle, and the other dog runs off. Figuring that we have some meat for the camp, we decide to bring it to camp. While we are getting a quick bite to eat, a giant orc comes out of the woods claiming we killed his dog. I explain to him that the dogs attacked us first and we were just defending ourselves. He wasn't happy, but left complaining about having to replace some special hunt hound.
Next morning we get up for breakfast. I stand in line but find that they are serving porridge. If there is one thing I can't eat, its porridge. So I dust off my charm and stand near the bread line like a lost puppy begging for scraps. Just about everyone in line hands me a roll fresh from the oven. I'm in heaven. Later we report for duty. Foreman Zelcer looks at the sky and claims that it will rain today and no need to survey rocks. Instead, we are to scout for some rocky hills in the area and place some elemental traps on there. He hopes that he can catch a few lightning elementals to use as living power sources in camp. This sounds like fun, so we go scouting the hills. I can tell that the human, Vincent, is not used to anything but city life. He constantly jumps at everything. We manage to find four suitable places for traps so the dwarf Oakburn, and I place them.
We go back to camp and I'm ready for a few minutes of relaxation when Vincent volunteers us for foraging duty. For someone that doesn't like to work with his hands, he sure volunteers a lot. So we go out among the forest and pick herbs, plants, mushrooms, and tubers to bring back to camp. As we are foraging, I hear some small-folk laughter and as I'm looking for the source, I trip over my own feet. The little scarpers tied my shoelaces together! I had to laugh and give them props. I congratulated their cunning with a reward of a warm bread roll.
That afternoon, I overhear one of the cooks worried about something someone foraged. I come over to see what is the matter and they show me a little mushroom, only it moves, and has a cute little face! They are worried that the adults will come to claim the little sprout and wreak havoc in the camp. I volunteer to take it to the edge of camp so that its parents won't disturb everyone. I give it a piece of bread and try to entertain it by rolling a rock through my fingers. It seemed a little scared but started to calm down when two huge mushrooms come charging at the camp toward us.
As they are coming toward camp, Vincent gets all nuts and starts throwing fire at one of them. I tried to yell to him to stop, but he was half mad. While I'm yelling to him, the sprout shoots off a cloud of spores and I sneeze. Next thing I know, it is talking to me inside my head! I quickly calm the sprout and convince the dragonborn (Donaar) and the artificer (Wabnuc) to heal the mushroom that was nearly flambéed. I tried to tell the mushroom to run from Vincent after it was healed, but Vincent thought I wanted him to run, so it all worked out. I gave the sprout over to the adults and waited for supper to be done. Meanwhile the elven bard (De sir e) treated us all to some music. Apparently that air bag is a musical instrument. Who knew!
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