Thomas Tallfellow
Thomas Tallfellow (a.k.a. Fleet Foot)
Thomas hails from the small village of Coldbrook, about 5 days travel north of Arcadia. His parents Lobo and Primrose still reside there. Lobo is the brewer at the Silver Ox Inn. Primrose has taken on the role of village nanny after the death of Thomas' sister Theodora.
Theodora was killed during a Warg attack against the village. Thomas earned the reputation as a folk hero when he got the town to band together and fight off the invading Wargs. It was this incident that led to Thomas leaving his old life as a map maker behind and fully embrace a new role as Ranger, protecting those residing in the region from dangers they don't know exist.
Physical Description
Apparel & Accessories
Typical ranger garb. Earth tones and light armor.
Social
Contacts & Relations
Primrose is his mother and Lobo is his father. His younger sister Theodora is deceased.
Family Ties
Mother Primrose
Father Lobo
Deceased younger sister Theodora
Hobbies & Pets
Map making.
Halfling Ranger patrolling the area to protect the residents from dangers they don't even know exist. He's a local folk here due to the role he played during a warg attack. He is overly trusting of the simple country folk that inhabit his homeland.
Character Location
Alignment
Lawful Good
Age
20
Birthplace
Coldbrook, 5 days travel north of Arcadia
Children
Current Residence
Roaming the kingdom
Gender
Male
Eyes
Brown
Hair
Brown
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Tanned
Height
3'6"
Weight
43#
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Vocath's Arena
Having no other apparent options for enlisting aid against the Xaryxian Empire, the four party members - including the recently rescued Valana - have agreed to Vocath's terms of fighting three consecutive rounds in his combat arena. The party was granted the opportunity to prepare for the combat so they wasted no time in stocking up on potions and new magical items. Eeblock acquired a tool to help enhance his spell casting. Thomas quickly opted for a magic shortbow to make his ranged attacks even more precise and deadly. Plenty of potions were also grabbed to ensure the party would have the ability to heal between rounds.
Once shopping was completed, the party made their way to the arena where they prepared for the first of their three battles. Jade immediately consumed a heroism potion as well as a giant strength potion. Coupling both of these with her barbaric rages will make her quite the force to be reckoned with. As the party stood close to each other, across the arena entered 2 huge, 4-armed, yellow skinned giants. The party was ready for them and quickly got off a round of attacks before the giants could make their first move. Only Jade dared go toe-to-toe with the foes, and for good reason. The giant she was engaged with attempted to grab her with each of its limbs in an attempt to rip her to pieces. Jade, however was too quick to be grasped by the beast. Meanwhile, the second giant focused its attacks on Valana who had managed to affect it with a spell which affected its attacking ability. Valana suffered a fierce blow but was able to cast a spell which paralyzed both of the giants. The party wastes no time landing fierce blow after blow upon the parayzed foes but were unable to defeat them before one of them broke the spell holding it fast. It immediately went after Valana and was able to strike her down, which caused the spell on the other giant to falter. The giant that struck down Valana now eyed Thomas and lands a blow on the halfling. Thomas is able to disengage from the giant, scamper across the arena and strike it down with an arrow through the eye. The second giant attempts to grab Thomas to rip him apart, but it certainly had underestimated the halfling's elusiveness as Thomas is as slippery as an eel, especially around lumbering giants. The three remaining party members focus all their attacks against the last giant and quickly defeat it. Eeblock quickly heals Valana back to consciousness, when she quickly heals herself and downs a potion to get herself back to fighting strength, albeit still fairly wounded.
After only a brief moment to regroup, the next set of foes enter the arena. This time it is a single giant bipedal creature with a lizard-like head with two companions, similar to the creature we defeated for Topolah, but not as large. One of them is apparently a juvenile as it is significantly smaller than the other. This time, the party was not as quick at the draw as the enemy and the giant gained the initiative. Valana and Jade are both hit by a breath weapon from the giant, striking Valana down. Jade is then swallowed by the larger of the two companion creatures. Thomas manages to elude the creatures and find a position where he can fire arrows at the creature that swallowed Jade while Eeblock and his homunculus sent attacks at the giant and the smaller of the two companions. Thomas is struck down by the giant just as Valana revives on her own, casting a hold person spell to paralyze the giant. Jade manages to hack her way out of the beast that swallowed her, slaying it in the process. Valana runs over to heal Thomas, getting him back into the fray but only briefly as both Valana and Thomas are struck down by the giant. Meanwhile Eeblock managed to slay the smaller of the two companion beasts leaving just the giant. Fortunately, Jade and Eeblock are able to defeat the foe, but not before Valana succumbed to her injuries. Eeblock was able to revive Thomas, who then consumed a potion and cast a couple of cure wounds spells upon himself to be at top condition for the next fight. But now, there are only three party members. Gaining the upper hand is imperative as there will be no spell casting help from Valana to disable any of the foes.
Off to Doomspace
After defeating Gargenhale's mutinous crew, we made our way to the brig. There, in the two cells were two elves, one female and one male. The female, dressed in fine clothing, carries herself with the air of nobility. The male, upon espying who has come to the rescue, quickly changes form to a freckled, ginger female. Jade, startled by the sudden transformation pointed out that she had heard stories of beings that are capable of changing their form and appearance at will. Upon saying that, the creature then transforms into the likeness of Jade. Not a great idea, Jade takes offense, but the creature reaches through the bars and casts a Cure Wounds spell on Jade, healing some of the battle wounds from the previous fight which lightens the mood.
Meanwhile, Gargenhale introduced the other prisoner as Princess Tia of the Xaryxian Empire. Eeblock, being a bit suspicious at someone so important being captured by somewhat that has shown himself to be, not all that competent, inquires with the princess as to how she was captured. Tia proceeds to give us a quick family history, she is the eldest child and heir to the throne of the empire, but her brother Tim, usurped her title and made arrangements to have the princess delivered to our world where she would perish along with the rest of the inhabitants. At the mention of the name Tim, Thomas interrupts asks for clarification on the name to ensure he heard her correctly. It turns out, Tia's brother and the king's advisor is one and the same. She gives us the reasoning as to why Tim is draining our world's energy, and her objection to this course of action is what caused Tim to seize control of the Navy and follow his own wishes. Tia states that if we can get her to our world, she can perform a ritual to stop the destruction once and for all. However, she advises that we will need allies to help break the blockade around our world and hopefully, convince at least some of the Navy to join her side.
After releasing Tia from the brig, the changeling requests rescue as well. She proceeds to tell us her name is Valana and she was captured by Gargenhale when he pirated another ship. Valana had been working as the entertainment and the captured ship and was permitted to perform the same duties on the Last Breath, at least until she sang a song Gargenhale didn't like. He sent her to the brig for that and she has been there since. Thomas offers her to join the crew of the Moon Dancer in return for freeing her from Gargenhale.
Upon returning to the Moon Dancer, introductions are made and Tia's story is relayed. Krux happily exclaims that the reason we are heading to Doomspace is to meet with his friend Warwick Balstimoff. Blastimoff has been working in Doomspace to form a coalition of the various factions hiding out in Doomspace. His goal is to have a force that can make coordinated and effective assaults against the Empire ships. Krux indicates the last time he had contact with Blastimoff, he was on the moon of Aruun and that is where we should plot our course. To get to Doomspace, we need to navigate the Astral Sea for a period of 3 weeks. During that time, Eeblock works on mending the Last Breath. Tia and Valana get more familiar with the party and crew. Valana discloses that when they take the form of a male, that their name changes to Valanar and the best way to address them is as they or them rather than he or she or him or her. That way, keeping track of what gender is being presented won't matter. Thomas spends much of his time trying to learn more about Spelljamming from Topolah as well as gather as much information as possible from Krux about Blastimoff.
When we eventually arrive at the moon of Aruun, the rock's surface is thick jungle, presenting no place for the Moon Dancer to land. Krux requests Harry lower the ladder and he proceeds to descend towards the planet. Thomas follows along, eager to be back in a lush, forested area and the rest of the party, including Valana, follows. Just as the last party member touches the ground, a gunfire blast is heard and a Gif - Warwick Blastimoff - bursts through the jungle into the small clearing. He immediately states it is time to go and heads directly towards the ladder. In close pursuit of Blastimoff were several starfish like creatures, sending volleys of radiant energy in the direction of Krux and the party. Knowing they would be sitting ducks and easily picked off by the creatures if they simply tried to ascend the ladder, the party decides to fight. These creatures have extremely long tongues and are able to use them to grasp their enemies and drag them closer. Both Krux and Blastimoff are caught this way, but the battle savvy party were able to make relatively quick work of the the assailants. Unfortunately, that wasn't the last of the troubles. Two large, bullet shaped creatures emerge from the earth and quickly knock both Krux and Valana unconscious. A short battle ensues in which one of the creatures is slain and the party manages to escape to the Moon Dancer after heavily wounding the second creature.
Blastimoff relates his tale of how his efforts to unite the warring factions into a single, coalition have failed. However, there is one person - Vocath - whom all the factions purchase weaponry and war machines from. Vocath is a Mercana and has taken up residence on one of the nine moons of En. He has humbly named this moon after himself. Blastimoff suggests that we may be able to muster a fleet with the assistance of Vocath as he is owed favors from all of the various factions. Having little to no other choice, a course is set to Vocath.
Upon arrival, the Moon Dancer docks and is immediately hailed by a guard inquiring as to our business. Thomas relays that they have business with Vocath at Blastimoff's recommendation. The attitude of the guard appeared annoyed at Blastimoff's presence, but relayed the message to Vocath, who agreed to meet with the party. Against Thomas' wishes, Tia joined this landing party, hoping to plead her case and help smooth things over and gain the upper hand in the negotiations. a group of guards lead the away team through the streets and into an octagonal arena where Vocath was awaiting them. After hearing the party out, he agreed to lend his aid if the party is able to survive three rounds of combat in the arena. Three consecutive rounds of foes. With no other apparent options, the party agrees to the terms.
Retaking the Last Breath
The boarding party of Callot, Jade, Gary our mercenary, Gargenhale and his two crew mates aboard the Moon Dancer made their leap through space towards Gargenhale's ship, The Last Breath. Unfortunately, our element of surprise didn't last as long as hoped. Callot made quite a bit of noise as he leapt and alerted the two vampirates on watch aboard the Last Breath. Thomas took this opportunity to begin launching arrows, managing to strike one of them firmly enough using an arrow of pushing to shove the vampirate overboard and into space. Unfortunately, the alarm had already been sound, so the crew of the Last Breath began to make their way topside. Commodore Krux and Eeblock joined Thomas in making ranged attacks as the boarding party slowly drifted their way to Gargenhale's ship. Meanwhile, the pilot of the Last Breath tried to take evasive actions, but Topolah was too good a pilot and managed to move the Moon Dancer even closer towards the Last Breath. By the time the party reached the ship, Thomas had managed to push another of the vampirates overboard to drift aimlessly in space. The deck of the Last Breath gets quite crowded by the time the boarding party arrives, which makes Thomas' job of sniper fire even easier. Things were looking pretty positive early on, until the ghost managed to possess Jade and force her to engage Callot rather than the crew of the Last Breath. Realizing Callot was being attacked from all sides, Thomas shifted his fire towards his companion, hoping that bringing Jade down would evict the ghost. The strategy worked, but that left Jade, unconscious on the deck of Last Breath with nobody to render her aid. At that moment, Eeblock grabbed hold of Thomas and leapt towards the Last Breath. Not exactly part of the initial plan, but it was the only way to render aid to Jade.
Once aboard the Last Breath, Thomas quickly made his way to Jade and cast a cure wounds spell to revive her. He then went back to firing arrows at enemies from the forecastle. Eventually, the mage piloting the ship made her way topside to aid in the battle. Meanwhile, the melee raged on, until suddenly the mercenary Gary viciously attacked Callot, apparently the ghost had a new victim. Once again, Jade was struck down, but Thomas was quick to get arrive and heal her once again. Thomas eventually depleted all of his arrows of pushing attempting to shove the mage from the ship while the battle roared on. One of the vampirate crew members used a necrotic ability that managed to slay Callot and transform him into a shade. That form of Callot continued to fight against the vampirate crew, but sadly, Callot the fighter was no more. Eventually Gary was rendered unconscious causing the ghost to vacate his body. Jade wasted no time attacking the ghost before it could possess someone else. Her assault was brutal and she managed to defeat the undead creature. Witnessing the decimation of the mutinous crew, the mage pilot fled the scene using magic to teleport her somewhere else. The mission was a success, the Last Breath once again belonged to Captain Gargenhale.
Now to find out who this special cargo is down in the brig.
The Vampirates
Enroute to the rendezvous with Topolah's contact, Commodore Krux spies a bunch of wreckage ahead of the Moon Dancer. Using his spyglass to get a better look at the situation, Krux immediately exclaims "to arms, to arms" as he puts his spyglass away and readies his musket. It turns out that amidst the wreckage, a potentially hostile ship was spotted. To complicate the matter, a bizarre storm appeared just away from the wreckage. As the Moon Dancer neared the wreckage to investigate, the ship was boarded by two humanoid creatures. Krux immediately identified them as Vampirates, apparently an arch enemy of his and he prepared to engage in combat. Topolah quicky defused the situation and informed the party that her contact is named Gargenhale, is the leader of this Vampirate fleet and also happens to be her ex. She engages in conversation with the Vampirates and they agree to not harm any of the Moon Dancer's crew. They inform the party that much of the wreckage is their fleet mixed in with a few destroyed Xaryxian Empire ships. The divulge that Gargenhale's ship is hiding in the storm to elude the Empire's ships. Krux only agrees to tolerate the Vampirates if they agree to be tied to the mast, ensuring they are unable to inflict any harm upon the Moon Dancer's crew. Being in no situation to bargain, they agree and the Moon Dancer heads into the storm to search for Gargenhale's ship.
It isn't long before the Moon Dancer encounter's Gargenhale's ship. The Vampirate captain hails the Moon Dancer and requests to come aboard to parley. Harry grants permission and the Vampirate captain introduces himself to the party as Topolah greets him with some sweet talk, in an attempt to set the stage for a favorable negotiation. Gargenhale explains that the Xaryxian Empire has been a thorn in his side for a very long time and is quite thrilled at the prospect of adding the Moon Dancer and its crew to his fleet. Thomas, knowing full well that Harry is not going to voluntarily serve under the leadership of the Vampirate captain, begins to negotiate their relationship. Thomas, being a somewhat skilled negotiator, manages to get Gargenhale to divulge more information about himself than was in his best interest, which reinforced Thomas' position. Thomas insisted that the Vampirates and the Moon Dancer work together against the Empire, but the Moon Dancer remains under Harry's command as an independent ship. Gargenhale reluctantly agrees to this but requests that the Moon Dancer plays along with the ruse that they are under Gargenhale's command to help with Vampirate morale. Believing that Gargenhale as an ally is more important than flexing their independence, the party and Harry agree to play along. Gargenhale, overjoyed that he now has allies against the Empire, announces that he is going to retrieve a special bottle of rum from his ship to toast their new alliance.
It's at this moment, several of the party members observe Gargenhale's ship sailing away from the Moon Dancer. Inquiring with the Vampirate captain as to whether that was appropriate or not, Gargenhale exclaims that this was not supposed to happen. Just a few moments after the ship sailed away, Commodore Krux goes pale as his eyes glaze over. As he begins to speak, the voice is significant different than how it normally sounded. The words coming from his mouth were also clearly not his own. Krux was being possessed by the spirit of one of Gargenhale's crew mates. The spirit exclaimed that he and the rest of the crew were retiring from their service to Vampirate captain. A full fledged mutiny was under way and at such an inopportune time.
Gargenhale, being desperate to reclaim his ship, managed to convince the party and Captain Harry to pursue his ship. Utilizing some magic, Gargenhale is able to render the Moon Dancer invisible, allowing a stealthy approach to his ship. Gargenhale informs the party and crew that there is a large amount of gun powder and alchemist fire in the hold of his ship, so firing against it is probably not a good idea if his ship is to be used against the empire. He also states that he has a special weapon, in the form of a person being held in the brig of the galley. Even if they are unable to retake his ship, it is imperative that this person be safely recovered. As the Moon Dancer closes in on Gargenhale's ship, the plan is formed for the party to join Gargenhale and board his ship to try and retake it. Gargenhale reveals that the ship is crewed by nine vampires, two ogres and a ghost. The ghost is the creature that managed to possess Commodore Krux and will completely nullify all of Thomas' stealth skills as it can easily detect a living being if when well hidden. Once the two ships are within 50 feet of each other, the boarding party makes a leap from the Moon Dancer towards Gargenhale's flagship.
The Wizard Topolah
Luck was with our adventuring party. A pod of Kindori - a sort of space dolphin - appeared near the Moon Dancer. Thomas used his ability to communicated with animals and managed to convince the Kindori to tow the Moon Dancer to the wizard's tower in exchange for a barrel of fish. It takes a few days, but we eventually arrive at our destination. The crooked tower sits atop a small asteroid and it's dock appears far to rickety to tie the Moon Dancer to, so the party, along with Commodore Krux take the jolly boat the last 500 feet to the dock.
As the boat approaches the dock, the wizard Topolah is lounging upon a chair on the dock and shoos off several creatures, making room for the jolly boat to tie up on the dock. Topolah is pleased to once again meet Krux as introductions are made. The asteroid is abundant with birds and bird nests, both outside and inside of the tower. Autognomes are found all over the place taking care of household maintenance and chores as Krux explains why he brought the party here. It turns out that Topolah has been observing the goings on of our world via a huge telescope. Krux inquires Topolah about a map to Doomspace but she has not mapped that area of wild space yet. She does however offer the use of a wild space orrery - a sort of crystal globe which is used to navigate wild space if the party will help her with a creature that has been harassing her birds. Being used to giving something to get something, and desperately needing the navigation aid, the party agrees to take care of this. Topolah explains that her birds are being ravaged and harassed by a creature called a Void Scaver, which she calls Big Momma. As we board the jolly boat to make our way back to the Moon Dancer, Big Momma manages to sneak up on us and attack our small boat. The creature is large enough that it managed to entirely swallow Eeblock after biting him, but fortunately, during the fight, Eeblock was spit back out and managed to rejoin the fray. Thomas suffered a similar fate near the end of the battle and was near death when the Moon Dancer's mangonel managed to strike a fatal blow against the Void Scaver, causing it to spit out both Thomas and the remains of a dwarf. Eeblock is quick to render aid to Thomas, bringing him back from the brink of death.
Topolah, being thrilled that the party managed to take care of Big Momma, as well as impressed that they did it so quickly, not only handed over the orrery, but volunteered to pilot the Moon Dancer to an old ally of hers. This ally owes Topolah a favor and has no love for the Xaryxian Empire and also commands a fleet of ships. Topolah believes this potential ally can be convinced to aid the party in their quest. It is agreed that having an experienced, skilled Spelljammer piloting the Moon Dancer is a better option than Eeblock or Thomas struggling through the process so they all make their way back to the Moon Dancer to embark on their next quest to further the mission.
Off to See the Wizard
Being confined to the ship for their own good, boredom began to set in. Eeblock had spent the entire time the ship was in port making repairs and Jade is simply not a patient person. Recognizing Callot as an able bodied fighter, the three of them decided to have a sparring session during between some of Eeblock's repair sessions. The first spar was between Callot and Eeblock. Eeblock got off to a quick start, landing a couple of brutal hits against the half-elven fighter, but Callot quickly recovered and displayed his own martial prowess landing vicious hits of his own. Straight martial combat not being Eeblock's forte, Callot managed to subdue him after a second volley of blows. After a short rest, Jade took her turn against the crew member. Having observed Jade's viscous fighting style, Thomas was certain she would get the better of Callot, but yet again, the crew member was able to best Thomas' companion. Jade attempted to persuade Thomas to take a turn, but sparring rules aren't how Thomas fights effectively so Callot was not going to have to fight a third time.
Finally, the Moon Dancer was repaired to the point it had two working weapons and the hull only had minor damage. The following morning, the crew and the hired mercenary arrived. As departure preparations were made, Commodore Krux finally revealed that he knew of a wizard on a distant rock that possessed no love of the Xaryxian empire and was quite certain she would also help aid in saving the party's world. As soon as Krux said this, both Harry and Flapjack knew exactly where they were going. Flapjack headed to the helm and the ship, moving slowly at first but quickly accelerating, departed from Braal and into the vastness of space. It wasn't long before Braal wasn't even visible to the naked eye.
Unfortunately, the route from Braal to the wizard did not lie unwatched. As the Moon Dancer sped through space, a large, jellyfish like creature began to chase them down. As it neared weapon range, a cockpit of sorts could be seen atop the creature with a flamboyantly dressed humanoid apparently helming the creature. Harry identified the type of creature at the helm as a Reigar and that they should prepare to defend the Moon Dancer. As the chasing ship drew closer, the Moon Dancer's crew launched attacks against their pursuer. Suddenly a loud scream could be heard coming from Flapjack and the Moon Dancer began to slow its speed dramatically. Captain Harry immediately ran to investigate as the jellyfish like creature closed the remaining distance and grabbed hold of the Moon Dancer with its tentacles. Just then, a flash appeared on the main deck of the Moon Dancer and the Reigar appeared, utilizing a dimension door to board the ship. He introduced himself as Captain Hastain and stated that he was hired by the Xaryxian Empire to make sure the Moon Dancer did not interfere any further with their mission to sap the party's world of all its energy. Hastain smugly informed the party that this was the end of the road for them as he was going to ensure none lived to see the end of their world.
As the fight between the crew and Hastain began, Hastain summoned a stone golem to his side. As the party initially focused their efforts on Hastain, he once again utilized a dimension door to return to his own ship/creature, leaving the golem to wreak havoc on the Moon Dancer. Thomas attempted to use his arrows of pushing to remove the golem from the deck but was unsuccessful. Meanwhile, Hastain sensing what Thomas was trying to do, began casting spells at Thomas, injuring him quite severely while the golem tried to move away from the side of the ship towards the door that led to Flapjack's quarters and the helm. Eeblock, knowing that without a helm, the Moon Dancer would be stranded in space, rallied the mercenary, Jade and Callot to surround the golem and prevent it from getting to the helm. Thomas positioned himself so that Krux was between himself and Hastain, forcing Hastain to attack others while Thomas continued to pepper the golem with arrows. Hastain was relentless and managed to drop Jade, but just then, Thomas landed struck the golem in a weak spot with a magical arrow causing a large crack in the creature. The mercenary, unable to harm the golem as he possessed no magical weapons, quickly grabbed one of Jade's healing potions and fed it to her as Callot, spying the crack in the golem managed to land the destructive blow. The creature exploded into a giant ball of fire, which once again, dropped Jade. Hastain, seeing his golem destroyed, decided that this ship was too dangerous a target to continue fighting, released the Moon Dancer from his creature's grasp and sailed off into the distance, smugly waving farewell as if his mission were successful.
As the party began tending to wounds, Eeblock was about to head through the door towards Flapjack's quarters when Harry emerged, carrying the limp, lifeless body of Flapjack in his arms. Captain Harry was thoroughly distraught, Callot cried out in disbelief and anguish at the sight. When Thomas realized that the scream they heard from Flapjack at the beginning of the assault was his death scream, he remembered the Revivify scroll the party had purchased while on Braal. He quickly drew the scroll from his backpack and began chanting the words from the scroll in an attempt to restore life to the newly departed Flapjack. At the conclusion of the spell, the words vanished from the scroll, the scroll disintegrated in Thomas' hands but the magic had no effect as Flapjack remained lifeless. Although able to understand the words and magic of the scroll, Thomas just didn't possess the skills to reliably cast this spell. Thomas expressed his sorrow at the loss of Flapjack to Captain Harry and apologized for not having the skill to successfully recreate the magic of the scroll.
Eeblock spent some time investigated the helm and was able to determine there was no permanent damage sustained, but that the magic cast upon it was going to leave it unoperable for a couple of days. They now found themselves aboard a ship, temporarily dead in space, without an experienced Spelljammer to pilot it. The only hope for the Moon Dancer is the manual that came with the helm and the brief lessons Flapjack had given Eeblock and Thomas on piloting a Spelljammer ship. They can only hope this skill set doesn't elude them the way the Revivify spell eluded Thomas.
Trouble on Braal
The elimination of the Xaryxian assassin did not go unnoticed by the town guard. Thomas quickly cast a spell to help obscure himself and his companions but wasn't quick enough. Jade and the homunculus immediately fled the scene without the aid of Thomas' spell. Unfortunately, Thomas was ensnared in a net thrown by one of the guards. Before the guards could reach him, he managed to escape the net and begin running towards a side alley. The guards were faster though and two of them caught up to him. Thomas was able to elude one of them, but the other was able to briefly grab hold. Thomas, being much more agile than the guard expected quickly escaped his grasp and disappeared into the crowd of people on the streets, making his way into the shadows of a side street where he could then stealthily return to the Happy Beholder to reunite with his friends and Commodore Krux.
Upon his arrival, his companions had already relayed the tale of what happened. Krux informed the party that things were going to become much more difficult on the Rock now that the attention of the guard had been drawn, but he agreed the safest place to be was upon the Moon Dancer. Thomas' spell still in effect, the group made their way to the docks and aboard the ship without drawing any further unwanted attention.
Harry was not happy at all to hear of the Xaryxxian assassins but even less pleased to hear that the town guard witnessed the slaying one of the astral elves. It wasn't long before the crowds on the docks began to disperse as a group of 8 town guards arrived calling out that they knew Thomas was aboard the ship and ordered him to come with them for questioning. Apparently some magical scrying was used on Thomas where the guard was able to ascertain his exact location. Realizing that a fight and hasty departure would leave them without a crew and no funds to attempt to hire another, as well as make the Moon Dancer a marked ship on Braal, Thomas decided to disembark from the ship to plead his case with the head guard.
Thomas explained that they were only on Braal long enough to repair their ship and hire a crew before shipping out and that the incident in the streets was due to Xaryxian assassins that followed the Moon Dancer to Braal. His words did not fall on deaf ears, but the guard captain informed Thomas that the assassins were working with the permission of the prince and he was going to need to come with them to answer questions. Thomas believing this was a bad idea and would probably land him in prison managed to bribe the captain with a hefty some of coin to pretend he was unable to locate Thomas until the ship departed. As Thomas boarded the Moon Dancer, apparently clear of any trouble with the law, Jade was amazed at Thomas' uncanny ability to defuse troublesome situation by merely talking to people. She had no idea this time it cost Thomas 100 gold.
As Eeblock continued to make use of his mending ability to repair the ship, Jade realized there was no booze on board the Moon Dancer but agreed that it was important for her and Thomas to lay low and not leave the ship while on the Rock of Braal. Harry's long time crew member Callot was in need of some new armor, so he agreed to purchase a barrel of ale while on his armor shopping trip into the city. Thomas, informed Callot of the shop he and Harry found the previous day and asked Callot to exchange his basic leather armor for a new set of studded leather armor. A short while later, Callot arrived with the new armor, followed by the delivery team with the barrel of ale. All that was needed now was another two days of repair and the arrival of the crew before the Moon Dancer could depart. But to where?
Commodore Krux
The group's second full day in Bral began after another restful night at the Frothing Mug. Eeblock once again made his way to the Moon Dancer to work on repairs, leaving his homunculus with the party to aid and keep communications open. Harry leads the party to a tavern called the Happy Beholder where he informs the party this is the place they'll find Krux before he too makes his way to the Moon Dancer.
Upon entering the tavern, Jade and Thomas were quite surprised to have a large Beholder behind the bar greet them as they enter. The tavern is empty except for a single, brightly dressed Giff with a parrot on his shoulder sitting at a table. The Giff gestures Jade and Thomas to his table, Thomas ordering ale for the table from Large Luigi, the Beholder as they made their way to the table. Shortly after sitting down at the table, Luigi brought two pitchers and several tankards to the table, carrying them with his eye stalks. Luigi, kindly informed Thomas that the Happy Beholder doesn't run tabs as he waited at the table until Thomas paid for the ale. Having a small bit of privacy, Thomas began to explain to the Giff that they were told Commodore Krux could be found here. The Giff inquired as to why they were seeking Krux, so Thomas briefly relays everything that has happened since that fateful day the party met at Spirits in Low Town. As the story went on, Thomas noticed that the Giff had stopped drinking and had even pushed his drink to the side as he listened intently to Thomas' tale. It was at this point the Giff introduced himself as Commodore Krux and that he believes the Xaryxian Empire is behind the troubles their world is experiencing. Krux explained that the Xaryxian Empire does this on occasion, harvesting other planets' energy to replenish their own sun. Knowing that Bral is a gathering place for all types of nefarious peoples, Krux, fearing spies could be anywhere, inquires as to whether the party has a ship and if so, it would be better to continue the discussion there. Sensing the concern in Krux's voice, Thomas acknowledged they did indeed have a ship, taking care to not mention its name, and to follow along as Thomas prepared to take extra stealth measures for their journey to the ship once the group emerged from the tavern.
It turns out, Krux's concern was warranted. As the group emerged from the tavern, the once bustling street was now empty except for four figures with hoods and scarves covering their faces. The figures took up strategic positions, focused on the doorway to the Happy Beholder. One of them made the announcement that they were here to get vengeance for embarrassing the captain of their ship. Thomas was quick to point out that their captain embarrassed himself and quickly surveyed options for escape. There would be no easy escape though as the four Astral elves immediately drew bows and began launching arrows at Jade and Thomas. Now that the elves had begun the fight, Thomas was no longer concerned about any repercussions from fighting in the public streets as he encouraged Jade to enter into a barbaric rage as he drew his bow and began loosing arrows at one of the elves. Fortunately, Eeblock's homunculus had relayed the message to its master and Eeblock began using the mechanical creature to cast spells through him. Krux drew a rifle from beneath his coat, being quite intoxicated, failed to hit anything with the booming shots. Two of the elves, fearing the deadly weapon wielded by Krux, now focused their attacks on him, while Jade battled against the other two in melee as Thomas continued to loose arrows, taking advantage of newly acquired skills to know exactly when a target was distracted enough by Jade to strike a deadlier blow. After being pierced by multiple arrows, Krux stumbled back into the tavern, appealing for help from Luigi as Thomas was able to pierce the eye socket of one of Jade's assailants.
With the loss of Krux and Eeblock struggling to land spells effectively via his homunculus, things began to look bleak for Jade and Thomas. That is until Luigi emerged from the tavern, made his way into the middle of the street and began shooting beams from his eye stalks at the pair of elves that were not engaged with anyone. While most of the Beholder's attacks went wide, the elves proved that once again, they were cowards and fled in terror. The lone remaining elf decided to strike a blow against Jade before teleporting away in an attempt to flee. Luckily for the elf, the strike was enough to drop Jade. Thomas wasn't finished with this however. Having magically marked this elf during his previous attack, Thomas knew exactly what direction the elf fled. Hoping to catch the villain unawares, Thomas yelled for Eeblock to cure Jade as Thomas began pursuit. Being a halfling, Thomas isn't the quickest runner, but the elf wasn't expecting a successful pursuit. About the same time Eeblock and the revived Jade caught up to Thomas, the elf realized he was being followed and began to flee again. Thomas loosed two arrows, but sadly, neither hit their mark. The pursuit continued until the elf, attempting to weave his way through the crowded streets, ran head first into a merchant's cart. At that point, the elf cried out for help from the authorities just as Thomas' arrow pierced the elf's vocal chords, slaying him instantly. Just before the party had a chance to make a stealthy retreat back to the Happy Beholder, they heard a voice from the crowd call out "Stop, in the name of the law". It appears they managed to do the one thing Harry warned them not to do. They were now in trouble with whatever passes as the law on this rock.
The Rock of Bral
Having defeated the dangerous creatures aboard the derelict Mind Flayer ship, the party was free to search it's cargo hold for additional treasure. While searching the ship, many dead bodies, both human and Mind Flayer, were found aboard the ship. There were also many egg masses, presumably from the terrible creature that almost harvested Jade's brain just moments earlier. Jade made quick work of every egg mass she encountered, ensuring no more of those creatures would spawn aboard this ship. The ship wide search paid off as the party found several large crates containing goods meant for trade. There were many potions found, some of which the party agreed to keep, others which they decided to sell for funds to hire a crew and make repairs to the Moon Dancer. It took several trips, but eventually all the goods were aboard Captain Harry's ship and Flapjack continued on the course towards the Rock of Bral.
It wasn't long however when Capt. Harry spotted another ship appear from behind an asteroid. It appears the derelict ship was a trap set by a Night Spider ship operated by creatures known as Neogi. Once again, the Scale of the Dragon found themselves involved in ship to ship combat, where their lack of experience really showed. The three party members tried their hardest but were unable to strike the spider like vessel. Fortunately, the enemy was also struggling to inflict damage. Only one of the two attacks that struck the Moon Dancer managed to do any damage and that was minimal. After only a couple of volleys between the two ships, two new ships appeared on the scene. These ships were matching galleys from the Rock of Bral's Navy. Realizing they were now vastly outgunned, the Neogi ship made a hasty retreat to search for easier prey elsewhere. One of the galleys moved up alongside the Moon Dancer to inquire as to the ship's destination and who we were. When Captain Harry informed the Githyanki captain of the Encourageable that we were headed to Bral, the Githyanki offered their services to escort us safely to Bral's docks.
Upon reaching Bral, Harry recommends that we clean ourselves up, find some accommodations for a few days and get some rest. The following day we will work on selling our goods and locating Commodore Krux. Harry recommends we make our way along Trader's Way in Middle City to the Frothing Mug in. There we will be able to get a hot meal, a cold drink and a comfortable bed. While navigating the streets of this strange new city, Thomas utilizes his cartographer's tools and works on a map so the party will be able to find their way should the become separated from Harry at any time.
After spending a restful night at the Frothing Mug, Harry suggests that he sells the goods while the party locates Commodore Krux. The idea is quickly shot down by the party as the party desired some goods of their own, so it was eventually agreed that they would stick together and tackle the projects in turn. The first chore was to sell the goods salvaged from the Mind Flayer ship. Harry recommends we head to the Lesser Market where he and Thomas will work together to get a good deal on their goods. Not only do they get all of their goods sold at a single shop, but they get more for the goods than expected! The day was off to a good start.
The second task of the day was to secure a crew for the Moon Dancer as well as some folks to help repair the Mangonel on the ship. It was decided that 11 sailors would do for the bulk of the crew and a single hireling to aid if the ship continues to be assaulted while journeying. The sailors were easy enough to find in the Lesser Market. An experienced mercenary was going to require a visit to Xenotermination. At this point, Eeblock and Harry made their way back to the Moon Dancer to aid in ship and mangonel repairs. Eeblock left his mechanical homunculus with the party to keep in communication. The visit to Xenotermination was relatively brief. Thomas explained what the party's needs were to the clerk and was presented with an option to hire two lesser skilled mercenaries or one more experienced veteran. Jade and Thomas talked it over and decided they'd feel better taking the single, experienced mercenary over the other two, mainly due to the extreme dangers the party has faced and a fear that the less experienced mercenaries would be in over their heads. Thomas signed the contracts and instructed the clerk to have Cody meet the party at the Moon Dancer in two mornings.
The last chore for the day was to locate a shop where the party could acquire some aids to keep them safe. Thomas, who had been mapping the city as Harry led them around, knew the exact shop - Everything You're Looking For - right in the heart of the Lesser Market. It was a very well named bodega as it had everything the party was looking for even if they couldn't afford everything they wanted. It was eventually decided that a bag of holding was well worth the cost to ensure the party can take everything they need and still be able to return with loot. Thomas recommended the party purchase a Revivify scroll. It is a spell he is trying to learn and has a good chance to successfully use this scroll if one of his companions were to fall in combat. Eeblock, having witnessed Bob's demise requested a Ring of Mind Shielding, which among other things, would store the wearers soul if the wearer were slain. That soul can then communicate with the next wearer of the ring and could potentially be pulled from the ring and placed back into a body with the proper magics. Lastly, a potion of heroism for Jade to aid her in the highly intense battles. Having completed everything they wanted, the party, along with Harry, met back at the Frothing Mug for another evening of rest.
The Derelict Ship
As the Moon Dancer traveled through space, Thomas and Eeblock spent some time studying the manual that came with the helm provided by the gold dragon. Flapjack had relocated the helm below deck, adjacent to his quarters to keep it safe from potential thieves. Being happy to have someone new to talk to, he explained how the helm works and that the person operating the helm can hear the conversations of anyone aboard ship, feel all of the crews footsteps and movements and feels pain any time the ship is damaged. Thomas is now quite intrigued and highly motivated to try to pilot one of these ships. Flapjack calls himself a Spell Jammer and states that anybody with the ability to cast a spell can be a Spell Jammer and operate one of these helms.
Back atop the main deck, Captain Harry informs the crew that he has no idea how he is tied to the party's fate and he's never met a gold dragon. What he can tell the party is that the Moon Dancer can probably find a crew at the Rock of Bral and that his contact Commodore Krux might have more insight and be able to help the party. Harry describes Bral as being a somewhat rough and lawless place. There is no central government and the only way order is maintained is via gangs. Once they arrive at Bral, it is best to keep to themselves and not cause any trouble.
Just at the moment the Moon Dancer enters into an asteroid field to remain hidden and avoid further troubles from the Astral Elves assaulting our planet, Harry spies a ship floating past an asteroid, a ship that causes dread and fear in Harry. As the ship drifts closer, Harry realizes it has a giant hole in it and that it isn't manned. He exclaims the ship is a derelict Mind Flayer ship and it is beyond good fortune that there are apparently no Mind Flayers aboard. Believing there could be some treasure to help recruit a crew, the party decides to board the other ship. The Moon Dancer has a smaller ship powered by oars that the party can use to make their way from the Moon Dancer to the strange nautilus shaped ship. Harry provides each party member with something to chew on that will create an air bubble around each of their heads for 24 hours. So they make their way toward the ship, leaving Harry and Flapjack behind.
As the party approaches the ship, Thomas spots what appears to be a human peering through the hole in the ship but he quickly vanishes. The party guides their ship onto the most accessible deck of the derelict ship and begin to make their way around the various parts of the ship. The first thing they encounter is a human male, pretty roughed up and pleading for the party to help him and the others that are below deck. He informs the party his name is Benoto and he and the others were captives of the Mind Flayers who operated this ship. He has no idea as to what happened to this ship or the Mind Flayers. The party agrees to help Benoto and the others, but not until they've had an opportunity to investigate the ship. They make their way up levels finding a couple of dead, bug ridden Mind Flayer corpses. In their hopes to find a helm to operate the ship, they become extremely excited when a very ornate chair is found with a Mind Flayer body still sitting in it. Alas, it was just the captain's chair and the the navigation helm. Still a spell scroll is found in a secret compartment in the arm of the chair. Upon finding what was obviously the navigation deck, the party was disappointed to find that the helm had already been plundered from this ship. After finding nothing else of note in the upper decks, the party agrees to go below and help Benoto's companions.
Benoto leads the party to a door where the party could hear other voices. Benoto manages to reluctantly convince the party to send just one of them with him so as not to startle his companions. Jade volunteers to go alone. Thomas began to get suspicious of Benoto at this point, so as Jade and Benoto passed through the door into a new room, Thomas snuck carefully behind them. It was a good thing Thomas did this. As Jade approached another door and opened it, she immediately froze into place. Just past her, Thomas noticed a strange, spider like creature with a sac containing brains on its chest and a very long, probing tongue. Jade had been afflicted by a spell, freezing her in place and the creature slithered its tongue into Jade's ear. In an instant, the ring upon Jade's hand exploded. Thomas immediately began firing magical arrows at the creature as he called to Eeblock for help. At that instant, Thomas could hear a Thunderwave blast from behind, undoubtedly a spell cast by Eeblock. Jade eventually broke free of the Hold Person spell freezing her in place, but before she could do anything else, the spider creature cast a spell causing both Jade and Thomas to drop their weapons and flee in terror from the creature. Both the creature and Benoto pursued the pair with the creature continuing to assault Jade while Benoto made attacks versus Thomas. Knowing the greater danger was the spider creature, Thomas ignored the attacks from Benoto, drew his swords and relentlessly stabbed at the spider, causing it great harm. Jade, being unable to break free of the fear, fled back in the direction of the dropped weapons. At this point, Eeblock had gained entrance to this room where the strange worms attacking him could be held at bay in the doorway. Eeblock now sensing that the spider creature was the biggest threat in the room helped Thomas attack the spider creature and the two of the slayed it. Just as they were about to turn their attention to Benoto, he made a gesture, opened a portal and stepped through, vanishing. The party made quick work of the remaining worms that were attacking Eeblock and are now free to roam the ship in search of other treasures.
A Bold New Voyage
As Flapjack - a flumph and our pilot - navigated Capt. Harry's ship the Moon Dancer ever higher and higher in the sky, the party could see the crystaline vines weren't just affecting the city of Arcadia but the entire kingdom. In fact, it became apparent that the entire world was under assault as the ship reached heights that weren't even thought of as possible. Capt. Harry joked that everybody should take a deep breath as the ship broke out of the planet's atmosphere and into space. Both Harry and Flapjack had a good laugh at the expense of the party trying to hold their breath when Thomas had finally given in and taken a breath. Harry then explained that the ship creates its own gravity field which is centered on the midline of the ship. It also creates an air bubble around itself. With just the few of them on the ship, there's plenty of air to make the journey to a place called the Rock of Bral.
Now that our rescuers had their laugh at our expense, Harry points out a large armada around our world and indicates that they are behind what's happening to our world and also the reason Harry and his shipped ended up on our world without a Helm. However, the specifics of what happened to him were a little vague and didn't feel as if he was being completely honest or thorough. Harry suggested we navigate to the dark side of the moon where we can get some rest before attempting to break the blockade and escape our planet. Once situated and out of sight of the armada, Jade, Thomas and Eeblock take another trip the Diner at the Edge of the Universe to acquire some items. Of the items acquired, a ring called the Second Chance ring which will restore much of the health of the wearer if the wearer were to be killed. After some brief discussion, Jade and Eeblock were determined to be the best options for this ring. They played a game of Rock, Parchment, Shears which was won by Jade. After returning from the diner, the party made the preparations to give Bob Biggins the most epic burial any adventurer could wish for. Harry showed the party how to operate the deck mounted Balista. Bob was then tied to a Balista bolt and was shot to the moon's surface as his final resting place.
After finally getting a solid rest in quite some time, the party moves up to the main deck as Capt. Harry instructs Flapjack to attempt to flee from the armada and set a course to the Rock of Bral. Unfortunately, one of the armada ships spice the Moon Dancer sailing away and begins pursuit. The Moon Dancer isn't fast enough to outrun the other ship so the party begins to prepare the balista for a battle. The Moon Dancer also has a shorter attack range than the pursuing vessel an suffers a few hits. Once the pursuing ship comes into range, the new balista crew shows that this is their first time operating one of these as the first shot misses. A second shot does strike the pursuing ship but does minimal damage. Once the pursuers are within boarding range, four creatures leap from their ship and glide their way towards the Moon Dancer. After a quick battle, 3 of the boarding creatures are slain before the 4th surrenders. At that point, the captain of the pursuing ship begins a parlay with the party. Thomas, feeling confident they could handle another assault if necessary, intimidates the other ship's captain into taking their crewman back, returning the armada and forgetting they ever set eyes on the Moon Dancer. Harry informs the party that the captain and most of the crew of the other ship are Astral Elve's and are not particularly pleasant beings.
Chaos Erupts in Arcadia
After the strange sensation subsides, the party finds themselves in the basement of a building that resembles that of many of the structures in Lowtown. The entire building is quaking and rumbling. We quickly make our way upstairs and emerge onto the streets of Lowtown. The sky has darkened, apparently the sun has now darkened, the rumbling and quaking is being caused by crystaline vines erupting from the earth all around the city. The vines grow rapidly and shooting stars are peppering the earth and destroying buildings. The population of Lowtown is in a total panic as vines are swiping from the ground, whomever they can reach. Just then, Jade spies a younger version of the halfling named Harry they saw in their joint vision just a day earlier. Jade immediately calls out to him and begins to run towards him. The sight of a half-elven barbarian running towards him, frightens Harry to the point he begins to flee from the party. Bob casts a Misty Step spell to get in front of Harry and grapple him as Thomas yells in halfling language to Harry that they were sent to find him and work together to stop whatever is happening to the world. The vines are numerous and all around the group, preventing the party from reuniting without fighting their way past. Harry quickly escapes the grasp of Bob and begins running back the way he came, but is attacked and grasped by a vine. Bob is now assaulted by two vines which quickly grasp him, while the remainder of the party has their own vines to fight off. Bob, seeing Harry alone and in desperate trouble, blasts the vine grappling the halfling with Eldritch magic, destroying the vine and freeing Harry. As the party fights off the vines attacking each of them, Harry renders aid to party members closest to him as the two vines engaged with Bob prove to be too much for the Warlock. Their persistent and violent attacks render Bob limp and unconscious. Before anyone can reach Bob to render aid, the party watches in horror as one of the vines picks up his limp body and slams it upon the ground, shattering his bones and rendering him lifeless. The party eventually fights off the vines as Harry commands them to follow him to his ship. The party convinces Harry to wait long enough for Jade to recover Bob's lifeless body and Eeblock to return to the basement for the chair. When Harry sees Eeblock emerge from the building with the chair, his excitement was impossible to contain as he exclaimed "Good, you have a helm!", and he begins to hurry towards the docks. As they rush towards the dock, some of the vines can be seen transforming into bipedal entities after growing to a certain size. Clearly, this is more bleed from some other realm brought on by the cracks in our reality.
The docks are utter chaos. There are only three ships left in the docks with many citizens of the city trying to get aboard them. A group of armed, but unadorned ruffians is spotted barring the way of the masses and proclaiming that the remaining ships have been commandeered by the king for official use. This prompts Thomas to make his way through the crowd towards this person, with Harry in tow, making just enough space for Eeblock and Jade to follow through the crowd. Thomas was still in possession of the king's letter citing them as being in the king's employ and handed the letter to the leader of those blocking access to the ships. Thomas explains that they are on an urgent mission for the king and Harry points to his ship, stating that it is imperative that we get to it. The lead ruffian crumples up the letter while slyly telling the group he doesn't work for the king. Knowing time is of the essence, the party quickly engages the ruffians and with the aid of some of Harry's crew, force their way past and onto the ship. Eeblock sets the chair down on the ships deck and takes up a position on the bow along side Thomas to pepper the ruffians with ranged attacks to prevent them from following on board the ship. At that moment, a strange creature emerges from below deck, sits down in the chair and begins the process of navigating the ship from the dock. Much to everyone's surprise, rather than the ship drifting upon the water away from the docks, the ship begins to rise into the air. It appears there is more to this chair, Captain Harry and this ship than the party expected.
The Final Puzzle
The door from the chamber opened into an unlit hall. We carefully proceed about 50' down the hallway when it opens into a small chamber with a stone door on the opposite side. The door is flanked by pressure plates with the number 4 engraved on the wall above them. There's a flowing fountain in the center of the room with three jugs on the fountain ledge. Each jug has a number inscribed upon it and are different sizes. One jug is 3, the next is 5 and the last is 8. The party quickly deduces that the pressure plates must each have 4 units of water in the jugs to open the door. Believing they figured this out that easily, the part poured approximately have the water from the jug marked 8 into the jug marked 5. This did trigger the pressure plates, but they immediately reset and the fountain started to spew more water than it was taking back up and the entryway the party entered through sealed behind them. Jade came up with the idea to empty one of their waterskins and use it to hold exactly 4 units of water by filling the jug marked 5, draining that into the jug marked 5, then that into the jug marked 3. This left exactly 2 units in the jug marked 5, which was then placed into a waterskin. Doing this twice left them with 4 units of water in the wineskin. Repeating the process yielded 2 waterskins with exactly 4 units of water. Emptying the waterskins into the jugs marked 5 and 8, then placing those jugs on the pressure plate yielded no result. Clearly, this was a magical puzzle that required the use of only the three jugs to achieve exactly 4 units of water in two of the jugs. After attempting iterations for over 45 minutes, Bob eventually stumbled upon the correct pattern of pouring water between the jugs. Bob hadn't even realized he solved it and was about to make an incorrect pour when Thomas realized what Bob had done, stopped Bob and pointed him to the correct pour. When the two jugs with exactly 4 units of water in them were placed on the pressure plates, the door opened, the fountain began to flow at a normal rate again and the water drained out of the room, through the newly opened door.
The party listened carefully at the darkened doorway and could detect the sound of hoarse breathe. No longer having a lit torch, the party decided to let Jade with darkvision stealth her way into the room and determine what lay within. Whether magically cloaked, or Jade being careless, she accidentally stumbled into something very large and scaly. At that moment, a deep, bellowing voice was heard asking "Who goes?". The remainder of the party enters the chamber as Jade answers the question. Shortly after entering the room, a small beam of purplish daylight could be seen entering the chamber from above, apparently from a hole in the chamber's ceiling to allow the light in. A chair with a book could now be seen in the chamber. On the floor, encircling the chair were arcane runes. The party could now also see that the breathing and the bellowing voice belonged to an ancient gold dragon. This dragon made the green dragon the party slayed in the Dwarven Isles look like a baby. It was clear, this dragon would make quick work of our heroes if that were his choice. Conversation with the dragon reveals that he is aware of what is happening in the world and knows what is still to happen. He states that he has been waiting for a long time for someone to come here and claim the treasures - the book and chair. He also informs them that there is still time to save the world but what is about to happen next cannot be stopped. To save the world, the party needs to use the chair and the manual upon it to get off of this planet as that is the only way the world can be saved. He tells them that they must find Captain Harry to help them do this. Thomas makes his way to the chair and picks up the book. Below the book is a coin purse containing the magical coins used as currency in the Diner at the Edge of the Universe, but this time they are black in stead of red or purple. Just as this happens, the light from the hole in the ceiling begins to fade, the dragon tells the party to enter the circle on the floor and begins casting a spell. A sensation of weightlessness and an instant of utter blackness is felt.
The Comfy Room
Relieved that there was no trap sprung when the timer counted down to zero, the party made their way toward the new doorway that opened. Thomas lit a torch and took the lead. Through the door, he saw what appeared to be a comfortable chamber with some furnishings a door on the far side of the room and a chest in the center of the room. Thomas carefully made his way toward the chest and discovered a key with a symbol of a sword upon it. Attached to the key was a letter that simply read that it would open when brute force failed. At this point, Thomas noticed that there were three chains wrapped around the chest. Each with a lock and a lock upon the chest itself. Each lock has a symbol upon it. The lock on the chest itself has the symbol of a coin and the locks on the chains have the symbols of a sword, a wand and a chalice. Thomas places the key with the sword symbol into the lock with the sword symbol but something is preventing the key from turning.
The party now enters the room, Bob attempts to open the far door but it is locked. Jade removes an oil cloth from a piece of furniture. The furniture is a vanity with a mirror, a bowl and a key with the symbol of a coin. There is a note on the vanity with a single question: what has 100 heads and 100 tails? Jade finds that she cannot pick up the key from the vanity.
Meanwhile, Eeblock was searching the room and found another key with the symbol of a chalice hanging from the wall behind a tapestry. It's note indicates that only your heart's greatest desire can release the key.
While the group is pondering what it takes to acquire the two keys, Thomas notices that the image in the mirror on the vanity doesn't match the room. The image also has a rope with a key attached to it hanging from the center of the room but there's no rope to be seen in the room. The group decides to rearrange the furniture in the room to match the image in the mirror. Once that is completed, Jade watches herself in the mirror and reaches to where the rope and key are. This time, she grasps a rope which can only be seen in the mirror. She unties the key from the rope and now has the key with the wand symbol.
Jade then places exactly 100 coins in the bowl of the vanity. When the 100th coin is placed in the bowl, they all vanish but she can now lift the key from the Vanity.
Eeblock suggests that maybe the heart's greatest desire is blood, so Bob uses a dagger to draw blood from his hand and uses that hand to take the key from the wall.
Jade attempts to insert the coin key into the lock of the chest, it fits but like the sword key, won't turn. But this time, the door begins to rumble and the room grows warmer. Jade realizes that the symbols are the same symbols on a deck of cards and that they have a specific order of importance, but can't quite remember what that order is. By a matter of dumb luck, Bob inserts the wand key into the wand lock and it turns, unlocking that chain. Eeblock then tries the chalice key and that too opens. Next, Thomas tries the sword key and that lock pops open as well. Lastly, Jade tries the coin key again, this time the chest pops open as the chains fall to the floor. Inside the chest is another key, this one appears to be for the locked door. Bob tries that key in the door and it does indeed open the locked door.
The Rush to Nightstone
The escape from Arcadia having succeeded, the party decides to avoid the roads and make their way towards Nightstone via a cornfield so as to elude city patrols searching for them. Unfortunately, between the darkness and the now exhausted state of several of the party members, the cornfield succeeds at hiding the party from patrols but disorients the party to the point that much valuable time is lost. After some time, the party emerges from the corn to find a homestead with a couple of horses. Jade immediately begins to prepare the horses for travel, with no intention of compensating the owner for the beasts. Bob rouses the resident of the farm and offers to buy the two horses instead. The mood of the farmer being quite sour at being awakened in the middle of the night made the negotiations difficult for Bob, but a high price was agreed upon and the party now had horses to expedite their journey to Nightstone.
Upon arrival at Nightstone, the party was greeted with a discouraging sight. The banner of the Seven Snakes mercenary band was flying from the city. It appears there is no safe haven to be found here. Rather than taking on the mercenary band to liberate the town, the party decided to head for the Whispering Caves. It appears that Tim was busy while our intrepid heroes were in the Dwarven Isles. A group of mechanical guards were posted outside the now doored entrance to the caves. With little to no options, the party engaged with the guards and defeated them, removing one of the two barriers to gain access to the caves. Utilizing their new rope trick rope, the party took a short rest to patch up wounds and do some quick healing prior to Cornelius using some blood magic to open the door to the caves. The use of this type of magic made the party uneasy, but he does appear to be an ally so the party followed him into the cave. Once inside, Cornelius closed the door behind them to prevent anyone from following them inside. The smell of mold and death hung heavy in the air.
The passage led to a long dark stairwell, which eventually leveled out into a cylindrical, domed chamber. The walls of the chamber had four different mosaics and pedestal with what appears to be a button atop it in the center of the room. The mural on the far wall and left of the entrance to the chamber was of a dragonborn warrior with several tiles missing from its mosaic banner. The mural on the far wall and right of the entrance was that of an elven sorceress atop water with what appeared to be spells of lightning and thunder in her hands. There were several holes drilled at the bottom of the wall and several of the tiles portraying the water were loose. The mural on the wall just to the left of the entrance was that of a paladin bearing the symbol of the son on his shield. One of the tiles on the shield is a mirror. The final mural, to the right of the entrance was that of a bow wielding halfling riding on the back of a bear. The tip of the arrow in the mural is an actual arrow head rather than a tile. No other exit from the chamber could be seen. An attempt to detect magic revealed everything except the floor emanated a magical aura. Upon inspection of the pedestal in the center of the room, there were four dragon heads rising from the top, each of them facing directly at the spot where two murals came together. the pedestal felt as if it could move, but something was preventing it from moving. Bob decides to press the button atop the pedestal to see if that will free the pedestal. His hunch is correct, but that's not all it does. The entire room lights up, an outline of a door appears directly across the room from the entrance door and the entrance door closes. A green number 20 appears above the new door outline and begins counting down. When the number reaches 15, it changes from green to yellow. Fearing this is a countdown to something dangerous, the decision is made to press the button again. The counter resets to a green 20.
Many attempts to manipulate the pedestal and special tiles in the murals are made, but nothing changes. When the party decides to let the number run down below 15 they discover that a new light shines upon the dragonborn mosaic when the counter reaches 14. At the number 13, a new light shines on the mirror tile of the paladin. Upon reaching 12, the spell effects of the sorceress illuminate and at 11, a light shines upon the arrow tip of the halfling bear rider. Jade presses the button and everything resets back to 20. The party spends several minutes trying different iterations of manipulations of tiles and pedestal but nothing new happens. The decision is made to allow the counter to drop lower. This time, when the counter reaches 10, the entire chamber begins to violently shake, knocking a couple of people to the floor. As the number drops lower, the new lights on the mosaics go out at different intervals. When the timer reaches 5, the number changes from yellow to read. Pressing the button again resets everything back to where it started at 20. Once again, the party tries to manipulate the special mosaic tiles and the pedestal as effects take place between the number 10 and 5, but as with every other attempt, nothing different happens. The decision is now made to allow the timer to reach the number 1 before pressing the button to discover what happens when the timer drops below 5. When the number 4 is reached, the roar of a dragon is heard within the chamber. At 3, the smell of sulfur fills the room. When the timer reaches 1, a great inhalation sound is heard reminiscent of a dragon preparing to exhale a breath weapon. The button pressed and everything resets to 20. Realizing that nothing the party has tried has made any difference, the group decides to allow the timer to run all the way to zero and see what happens. To try and minimize any damage from the apparent fiery dragon's breath the group squeezed between the dragon heads on the pedestal. With everyone braced for the worst, the timer dropped down to zero and the lights in the room went to normal the entrance door opened and a new door opened where the door outline had appeared. Apparently, this wasn't a trap, just a mechanism to delay strangers from proceeding further into the cave.
Something's Up in Arcadia
After bringing Cronelius to the king's advisor Tim, the party attempted to acquire the job of escorting the archaeologist to Nightstone and the Whispering Caves. Tim advised the party to see him the next day as he much to discuss with Cornelius. Having some down time in the city, the party decided it was a good time to take care of some business. First up was officially acquiring Hammer, Inc, so the party made their way to their favorite clerk. Unfortunately, the clerk was able to determine that the letter assigning the property to Thomas was a forgery but this was easily handled by paying property taxes due and handing a gem to the clerk for his troubles. The party now has a place to call their own in the city.
In an attempt to make their way back to Lowtown, the group notices an odd smell in the air and a large number of shooting stars in the sky. They also become hopelessly lost going in circles, apparently due to some form of enchantment. A halfling wearing chain mail and wielding a sword appears before the party and introduces himself as Harry. Harry informs the party that time on this world is limited as a vision of two humanoids wrestling apparates before the party. One of the humanoids is small and fast, the other large and strong. Harry informs them they represent the two gods of this world - the sun and the moon. A third being wielding a gun appears and shoots the sun. The moon attempts to fight this new figure but is also shot. Harry instructs the party that the village of Nightstone is important and that they should hurry!
The party decides that a night of rest is required and make their way to their new home. Shortly into the rest, there's a loud banging at the door of Hammer, Inc. It is Cornelius Doolan but he is now missing an arm! As the party works on healing and patching up Cornelius, he informs them that Tim is deeply involved in everything that's going on and that they need to get out of the city immediately as he narrowly escaped the clutches of the king's advisor. Shortly after leaving, while watching the group's back, Jade observes a patrol approach Hammer, Inc. and kick down the door. The hunt for the party is on, it's now an urgent matter to escape.
As the party emerges from Lowtown and enters Hightown, a patrol of mechanical humanoids catches sight of them and begins pursuit. Jade attempts to slow their pursuers by tossing a bag of ball bearings onto the ground but to no avail. Fortunately the party moves at a pace quick enough to lose their tail as they escape Hightown into a residential section of the city. The party slows their pace in an attempt to make their way stealthily to an outer wall but are once again spotted by a patrol. After a short fight, the party manages to elude the patrol, imbibe potions of climbing and make their way to the rooftops, over the outer wall and out of the city.
Return to Arcadia
The morning following the eclipse, the party made a quick trip the Diner where they were able to observe a now purple star in the sky. The party believes this star to be the now diminished sun of their world. Paul Hawkgaze explained that their realm was cracking further and more alien energies were leaking in. After returning from the diner, Thomas and Eeblock made their way to the docks to secure passage back to Arcadia. The docks were swarming with people, all trying to book passage off the islands. Thomas was able to utilize his small size and make his way through the crowd to the harbormaster. The harbormaster informed Thomas that many ships were already full, but due to the letter Thomas had from the king, he directed Thomas to a few cargo ships that might be able to help them. Thomas successfully booked the party passage on a large merchant ship that was due to depart the following morning. There are no cabins on the ship, so the party will need to sleep in hammocks with the rest of the crew, but at least they had passage home.
After rejoining the party at the Brewhaus, they went shopping to replenish the healing potions that were consumed during the battle with the dragon. Along with healing potions, Thomas was able to negotiate a deal for water breathing potions for all as well as a fire breath potion to give Jade a more effective ranged attack when the time comes. The night at the Brewhaus was much more restful than the previous night in the clearing outside the cave and all of them got their much needed rest.
After a quick meal in the morning, the party made their way to the docks and aboard their transport back to Arcadia. The trip asea took a little more than a week and aside from a rough storm, was relatively uneventful. Upon arrival at Arcadia, a different mood was upon the city than what they experienced before departing for the Dwarven Isles. Thomas suggested they make a stop at Spirits before escorting Cornelius to the king's advisor. The talk around the bar was all centered on the new condition of the sun. In general, people were no longer freaking out over it, but it was still the major concern in almost everyone's life. While the party ate and drank, they discussed the possibility of assuming ownership of Hammer, Inc., Morprax's former blacksmith shop. They decided that they could inquire about paying the taxes, and if anything came up, Bob would forge a document from Morprax naming Thomas as the owner of the shop. Using the key they recovered from Morprax body, the party entered the shop and found mail stating that 110gp of taxes were due. It seams this plan to have a home in the city may just pan out.
It was now time to escort Cornelius to High Town. There was a much greater guard presence than prior their journey and the guards appeared to be more resolute and professional as they made their rounds. Arriving at the clerk's office, Thomas presented the letter from the king and introduced Cornelius Doolan. After filling out the required paperwork, the group was escorted by guards to the awaiting advisor Tim. Tim was unfazed by the new look of the party and presented them with their Rope Trick Rope reward for retrieving Cornelius. Tim quickly informed Cornelius that he was to be escorted to Nightstone the very next day where he is to begin his work at the Whispering Caves. Thomas was quick to point out that the party was now in need of work and that they were very familiar with the roads to Nightstone. With any luck, they will be given the escort job and hopefully see how this mystery plays out.
The Crystal's Ultimate Purpose
The party proceeded to begin searching the cave for the dragon's horde while Thomas went back to clearing where the spent the previous night to retrieve Maxwell. After returning to the cave, Thomas was informed that the crystal is taking the life force of anyone inside and imbuing the dinosaur eggs with that life force. This is how the dinos were being hatched. Eeblock had attempted to swim beneath the surface of the water inside the cave but due to the battle, excess silt made the water too murky to see anything. It was decided that the party would camp outside the cave with the lizard folk to avoid the harm being inflicted by the crystal and make another attempt at locating the treasure the following morning. The lizard folk now revered the party members for defeating the dragon and were happy to share their food and fires with the party. Unfortunately, the jungle was restless that night as the campsite was attacked multiple times by dinosaurs preventing the party from getting a good rest for the night.
The following morning, Bob used a detect magic spell and ventured into the cave, suffering a little from the effects of the crystal. His spell led him to a spot in the water where he was able to determine there was an underwater chamber that had a strong glow of magic inside. Clearly this is where the treasure is stashed. Eeblock, having the ability to breathe underwater, followed Bob's instructions on where to find the sunken chamber and made his way beneath the surface. He found that this chamber had been made by hands of some civilization and contained multiple rooms. After searching for a few minutes, Eeblock found a heavy chest. He managed to drag it from the chamber and hoist it onto the dry land and out of the cave, noticing that the dinosaur eggs were now larger than they had been the previous day. After several unsuccessful attempts by Thomas and Eeblock to open the chest, Jade managed to pick the lock, which unfortunately released a burst of poisonous gas. Jade managed to shrug off most of the effects of the poison and the party discovered quite a few coins and some magical items.
Just as the party determined all the contents of the chest, the entire island began to rumble. The party quickly gathers up the treasure chest and begins making their way to the beach. Thomas sends the silver raven to summon Capt. Spruce Greentree for passage back to Little Pebbles. As the raven flies away, the sun is eclipsed and a purple light bursts from the mountain the cave was in towards the blocked out sun. As the party hurried through the jungle, the quaking subsided. Due to the crystal unleashing its stored up energy, all of the dinosaurs on the island dropped dead. It was the crystal alone that gave them life. As the eclipse passed and the sun returned the purple light could still be seen faintly. The sun didn't return with the same brilliance it had prior to the eclipse which left the land in a sort of dusk. Capt. Greentree arrived, quite shaken by the new sky. He indicated there was no earthquake back at the city, but the sky everywhere appeared darkened. The boat ride back to town was quick and uneventful. Little Pebbles was completely abuzz and panicked at the state of the sky. The party made their way to the Brewhaus where they made plans for the following day.
The Dinosaur Research Cave
As the party approached the clearing where the cave was located, Bob created an invisible floating disc to carry Eeblock, fully armored and ready to fire a threatening round from his pistol. Jade menacingly broke into the clearing along with Bob, extolling the greatness of Eeblock and Thomas who fired an exploding arrow into the ground and lastly, Eeblock upon the floating disc who let a loud shot ring from his pistol. It was quite an impressive display, but was only half as successful as the party had hoped. Several of the tribesman became extremely hostile rather than becoming awestruck at their presence. Three of the hostile lizardfolk charged toward the group, transforming into small dinosaurs on the way and began attacking the party while three other tribesman remained with the rest of the tribe, throwing spears in the party's direction. After a short battle, the party was able to defeat the three transforming tribesmen, which caused the three spearmen to surrender and give way to the party. It was at this point that Puneatazo made himself known by daring the party to enter the cave if they want to bring an end to this.
The entryway into the cave was narrow, so party members had to proceed one by one into the cave, where they found a fairly large chamber. There were several clusters of what looked like eggs along the left cave wall, a body of water along the right and rear cave walls and a pedestal near the center of the chamber with a purple glowing crystal hovering above the pedestal. In front of the pedestal stood Punetazo, poised and ready for battle. Thomas was the last of the party members to enter the chamber, Punetazo had already taken some damage Thomas' companions but just as Thomas drew his bow to loose arrows at the foe, Punetazo transformed. It turns out, this human form was just a guise. The creature was actually a young green dragon, which immediately upon transforming, let loose with a poisonous gaseous breath that Thomas was fortunate enough to be just beyond its reach. As the battle raged on, Cornelius was rendered unconscious from some arcane spell that encompassed the entire party inside the cave as well as Thomas standing just outside the entryway readying another arrow. Being unable to move Cornelius on his own, Thomas rushed through the strange, green glow, shrugging off its effects and joined his companions just as the dragon dove into the water, beyond the reach of any of the party's ranged attacks. Jade rushed back into the arcane glow to rescue Cornelius while Eeblock attempted to stow the crystal in his backpack, but thought better of it as it was the only source of light in the cavern. Once Cornelius was beyond the range of the arcane area, Thomas healed him with a cure wounds spell and made his way towards one of the egg piles to begin destroying them to prevent more dinosaurs from hatching. Meanwhile, Eeblock and Jade dove into the water to take on the dragon and hopefully drive him back to the surface where Thomas and Bob would be able to join the battle. After destroying a couple of eggs, Thomas changed his strategy because the crystal began glowing brighter upon the eggs' destruction. This was eerily similar to what happened at the cave just outside Nightstone. Thomas then made his way towards the edge of the water and was about to draw his short swords to dive in and aid his companions in the melee. Just as he arrived at the waters edge, the dragon surfaced from the water and loosed another poisonous gas breath, this time rendering all three of the land based party members unconscious and dying. Just as things were looking their bleakest, Eeblock and Jade were able to strike fatal blows, slaying the creature. They two then rushed to the aid of their fallen companions, rendering magical healing and general first aid to stabilize them and prevent their deaths.
Once all the party members were conscious and moving about again, Cornelius explained that it was the power of the crystal that allowed him to bring the dinosaurs to life and that also bound the dinosaurs to the island. It is unclear what will happen if the crystal is destroyed. Will it destroy all the dinosaurs or will it allow them to survive if they leave the island? Cornelius' fear, is that the dinosaurs will be able to roam the entire kingdom if the crystal is no longer binding them to the island.
It looks like there's a big decision ahead for all.
Cornelius Doolan's Mission
Cornelius showed up astride a three horned dinosaur to transport the party to safety before they are once again set upon by a pack of dinosaurs. The arrival of the transport was just in time, as the dinosaurs pursued the party and their mount through the jungle. This pack however had the ability to blink from one location to another which meant there was no way to outrun this pack. They were focusing their attacks on the large mount while the party attempted to pick them off with ranged attacks, but things appeared grim. It was at that point that Cornelius turned the reins controlling the amount over to Jade as he and Maxwell Boulder swung off into the trees to attempt a distraction to get the dinosaurs away from the mount. Fortunately, the distraction was more than successful as a large explosion eliminated most of the pack. It was just in time, as Jade had no skills in handling a mount and the dinosaur went off trail and started rushing towards a raging river. Jade was able to avert a massive disaster by getting the dinosaur to stop, however, her unsteady handling of the reins caused the dinosaur to roll over and on top of some of the party members. Shortly after the tumble, Cornelius and Maxwell rejoin the party and the Lizardfolk Cornelius retakes the reins and gets them all to the safety of his hideout in the jungle.
At the hideout, the party finally has a chance to tell Cornelius why they were searching for him and that the king required his service back in Arcadia immediately. Interestingly, the party learns that Cornelius is on this island under the orders of the king. It is his research that has created the dinosaurs by infusing old fossils with arcane energy and the assistance of a glowing crystal back at his research cave. It is at this point, that Cornelius informs the party that he no longer has access to his research cave as Punetazo has just recently arrived on the island and turned the islands native lizardfolk against Cornelius and has claimed the cave as his own. From what the party learned of Punetazo from Maxwell Boulder and Cornelius' fear that the foe may be able to unleash the dinosaurs upon the entire kingdom, the decision is made that prior to returning to Arcadia, Punetazo must be defeated once and for all.
The island is swarming with dinosaurs as the party was set upon by two larger dinosaurs en route to the research cave. It was a strenuous battle, but eventually one of the beasts was defeated and the other fled, probably in search of an easier meal. As the group neared the cave, it was decided that Thomas should scout ahead to gather information before the entire group sets upon the cave. Thomas snuck his way through the jungle and to the edge of a clearing where he saw about a dozen lizardfolk encamped just in front of the cave entrance. While spying on the tribesmen, Thomas espied Punetazo emerge from the cave and speak in a language Thomas couldn't identify, but thanks to the Babel Fish, was able to understand. Punetazo was attempting to rally the tribesman to enlist their aid in doing whatever was necessary to unleash the dinosaurs upon the world. Cornelius' fear was well founded and it was now clear that Punetazo needed to be stopped.
Thomas made his way back to the party and relayed all he had seen and heard. After some short discussion, it was determined that the best course of action would be an attempt to convince the tribesmen that the party was a bigger danger to them than Punetazo with the hopes that they'd be able to leave the lizardfolk unharmed and focus their energies on the real foe. Maxwell expressed his concern about aiding in this mission as Punetazo had magical control over him for quite some time. His fear was that Punetazo would once again be able to control him and turn him against his new companions, so it was decided that Maxwell would not come along and aid in this next venture.
Dino Island
The party, joined by Maxwell Boulder, arose the morning after acquiring supplies and made their way to the docks where they found the Investigator ready to depart. After paying the captain the agreed upon amount, they were ushered aboard and shown their cabins. The cabins went unused as it was a short trip to their destination. The Investigator anchored and the party was shuttled to a beach on the southwest side of the island via a small rowboat. After taking a moment to look around, it was decided that the most likely place to find Cornelius was on the mountain further inland. With no clear path through the jungle, Thomas decided to use his wilderness skills to negotiate a way through the jungle towards the mountain.
The way was tough as the jungle was extremely dense. None of the party had ever spent time in the jungle so it was difficult to tell if they were making good time or not. After some hours of traveling, a loud rumbling, like giant footsteps was heard as the ground shook. Moments later, the massive head and neck of a huge, lizard like creature pushed its way through the trees. None of the group had ever seen anything like this creature. It had a tail and walked on four legs like a lizard, but it had a massive body with a neck as long as it's tail and stood about 40' high. The creature paid little attention to the party as they stopped and stood in awe. Fortunately, Thomas stayed alert enough to notice that there were several smaller creatures off to their sides stalking them. As the large lizard creature moved on, Thomas alerted the rest of the party to the new threat and suggested they prepare for a combat. Thomas attempted to climb and hide in a tree, but was unable to gain purchase so he hid in a bush instead. Bob used a spell to quickly scamper 30' up a tree, while Jade, Eebrock and Maxwell stood with their backs towards each other in a defensive position. They had just taken their positions when 10, smaller, upright walking lizard type creatures rushed through the jungle towards them. Two of them began to climb the tree Eebrock was in, one of them was able to spot Thomas and rushed towards him. Five made their way to the trio in the defensive position while the last two were unable to reach anyone at this point. Obviously the creatures got the jump on the party and Maxwell suffered some serious wounds from the initial assault. Once the party was able to take some actions, things began to look better. Bob Misty Stepped to a different tree and began to launch Eldritch Blasts at the creatures. Jade went into a furious rage, with wild magic granting her the ability to teleport which she used to place herself in a position where she could slay the creature attacking Thomas. This freed up Thomas to enchant his bow with Hail of Thorns and fire an arrow, striking the creature in the middle of a group of three. Upon impact, thorny vines lashed out striking all three creatures, slaying the one struck and wounding the other two. Thomas used his horde breaking archery skills to quickly fire a second arrow at one of the wounded creatures slaying that one also. Eebrock used his newly enchanted gem to summon a creature to help him fight against one of the creatures engaged with him. After another volley by each side, this time with less success from the creatures, all but two creatures were slain and they scurried off quickly back into the jungle.
Thomas, seeing Maxwell pretty seriously injured, rushed over to use his last bit of magical energy to heal some of his wounds when another piercing cry was heard. It appears the creatures had backup and they were regrouping for another assault. It was at this time, when a large, four legged, triple horned lizard creature, ridden by a flamboyant lizard folk broke through the jungle near Jade. The lizard folk clearly fit the description given to them by Maxwell of Cornelius Doolan. Cornelius reached a hand out to Jade, declaring "Come with me if you want to live".
Maxwell Boulder's Story
After collecting the prize purse and departing the Giddy Gnome, the party discussed what they had learned to this point. Thomas relayed that Maxwell Boulder intends to meet with the party at the Brewhaus, so they made their way to their temporary residence. Upon arriving at the tavern, they found Maxwell waiting for them, with a table already secured in a secluded corner. The party agreed to join Maxwell at his table where he explained the reason he had to lay undercover didn't have as much to do with the illegal fighting club, but more to do with people being controlled and manipulated magically and that he had traced that to Punetazo. Unfortunately, Punetazo was able to work his magic upon Maxwell before Maxwell could bring him to justice. Maxwell feels that he was under Punetazo's influence for at least a couple of weeks. It was at this point that Thomas showed the letter from the king summoning Cornelius Doolan and explained that Maxwell was to be their point of contact in the Dwarven Isles to help them find Cornelius. Maxwell only knew that Cornelius was on an archaeological expedition on an unsettled island in the archipelago that was only inhabited by tribes of Lizard Folk. After inquiring as to why the king required Cornelius, Maxwell must have felt the mission of utmost importance as he stated he would accompany the party to the island. It was agreed that the party would spend the next day acquiring supplies and securing passage for the next phase of their mission and all would meet on the second morning to depart for the island.
That night, all four party members simultaneously had the same dream Morprax and Ruby had after they had rescued the Nightstone hostages. It was a bright corona - much like a total eclipse - with an unidentifiable figure in front of it. However, based on Morprax's and Ruby's description of the dream, it appears the figure was closer in this newest dream. Whatever it was that chose Ruby and Morprax has now expanded it's grasp to include the other two original party members as well as the two newest members.
The morning after the fight - and the strange dreams - found the party deciding to split up to acquire the needed supplies. They also discovered that in addition to the 2,000gp there were also 5 of the red magical coins in their loot. This excited the group and they agreed to make a trip to the Diner at the Edge of the Universe after they reconvened at the Brewhaus later that afternoon. It was decided Bob and Thomas would go collect Thomas wager winnings and secure passage at the docks while Eebrock and Jade shopped for potions and expedition supplies.
At the recommendation of Dewy, Thomas and Bob made their way to the docks in search of the ship The Investigator and her captain Spruce Greentree. It didn't take long to find the ship and captain and after some discussion it was decided that he would shuttle the party where they wished to go and return to bring them back when the party's silver raven delivered the message as to when and where they'd be. All parties being pleased with the arrangements, they bade their farewells and returned to the Brewhaus.
Meanwhile, Jade and Eebrock made their way to the alchemist shop where they purchased healing potions and supplies for Eebrock to craft healing potions during some down time. They also found a shop to purchase some new and upgraded expedition supplies as well as a gem store where Eebrock purchased a gem to place an enchantment upon.
When the party reunited at the Brewhaus activated the box to send them to the Diner at the Edge of the Universe, where Paul Hawkgaze happily met them, seeming pleased to see that there were four of them this time. He presented them with a platter of various magical wares. Having 5 coins to spend, the party had some tough decisions to make. There was a throwing hammer of healing as well as a potions belt that would allow the wearer to quickly draw and imbibe a potion without infringing upon their ability to take other actions in combat. Both of these items cost 3 coins each, so only one could be chosen. Of the other items presented, a magical quiver of holding for 2 coins piqued the party's interest. This quiver allows the bearer to carry an innumerable amount of ammunition as well as create up to 10 special pieces of ammo that dealt specialty damage in addition to normal damage. After some deliberation the party decided to purchase the quiver and the potion belt. Thomas will bear the quiver being the ranged attack specialist and Jade will wear the potions belt being the front line defender that requires the most healing without disengaging from combat.
Jade and Eebrock's Fight
Disappointed in not stopping the Merrenoloth and more than a little concerned that one of these creatures is targeting the party, they returned to the Brewhaus to get a night's rest. The following morning, the party discussed their plans, hoping to ensure a meeting with Maxwell Boulder this evening. When the time arrived, Jade and Eebrock went around the back of the Giddy Gnome to register as fighters while Bob and Thomas gained entrance as spectators and took seats at a table near the fight space. It turns out that the fights this night were going to be team fights where a duo can swap fighters in and out attempting to eventually win 3 falls against one of the fighters. The first fight for Jade and Eebrock went well as they made quick work of their opponents. The next fight included the fan favorite - Punetazo del la Muertos. This team was also able to make quick work of their opponents. Thomas had been keeping a very close eye on Punetazo and noticed him using a necklace with small dolls hanging from it as some sort of arcane focus to alter the actions of his opponents. This explained how he was able to salvage a win against the Boulder two nights prior where Eebrock was certain the Boulder had the win until he suddenly froze, allowing Punetazo to take the fall.
The next fight was Punetazo and his partner against our heroes. The crowd was thirsty for another big win for Punetazo but Thomas still had confidence in Jade and Eebrock. The first fall went in favor of our heroes, but during the second fall, Thomas spotted Punetazo use his necklace to stun Eebrock, earning him the win. Thomas immediately jumped atop his table and pointed out that Punetazo was cheating by using powerful magic. Unfortunately, the crowd didn't care and Thomas was ejected from the tavern, unable to watch his companions eventually lose the fight.
Thomas took the opportunity of now being outside to go around the back of the tavern in the hopes of finding Maxwell Boulder. Luck was with him as Maxwell and several other fighters were outside taking a break. Thomas approached Maxwell and began telling the tale of their mission from the king. Maxwell showed some interest but also appeared to not be of a clear mind. Before Thomas could get in any further words, Punetazo emerged from the building summoning Maxwell and another fighter back inside for another fight. Maxwell immediately left Thomas as if he were a soldier being ordered by a superior officer. Clearly, Punetazo had some mystical hold over Maxwell Boulder. Utilizing the shadows, Thomas managed to sneak in unnoticed behind the fighters and hid amongst the crowd to see what was going on.
The fight club manager Mr. Zot appeared and announced that a double or nothing fight was going to happen pitting Punetazo, Maxwell Boulder and el Fuego against Eebrock and Jade. A warning was made that this fight was not going to end in submission, so it was clear that all means necessary would be taken to win. Thomas made his way towards the front of the crowd where he could remain hidden but still see the action. During the first flurry of action, Thomas once again spied Punetazo attempt to use his necklace against Eebrock but it failed. Knowing that Punetazo was going to cheat, Thomas decided to make an attempt to level the playing field. Quickly darting from the crowd towards Punetazo, he attempted to swipe the necklace from Punetazo but he wasn't quite quick enough. He was able to notice however that every time Maxwell Boulder was struck, he had a brief moment of clarity before it faded. Clearly, hurting Maxwell was the key to breaking Punetazo's hold upon him. Thomas signaled to his comrades that they need to harm Maxwell. Unfortunately, Punetazo turned out to be quite a powerful arcanist and managed to envelope the fighters in a circle of darkness. This prompted Bob to rush in from the crowd and attempt to flush Punetazo out of the darkness where he could be confronted. During the fray, the darkness was dropped and Maxwell was struck hard enough to break Punetazo's hold. Unfortunately, the spell cast by Punetazo caused both Bob and Jade to flee in terror. Thomas continued to pepper Punetazo with debris from the crowd in hopes of breaking his concentration on the fear spell. Meanwhile, Maxwell turned all his might and fury against the crowd favorite. At last, Thomas' distractions achieved the desired result with a well placed bottle throw to the Punetazo's head. The spell was broken, Bob and Jade came roaring back to the fight. Eebrock and Maxwell had their sights set on taking Punetazo down, when he made some arcane gestures and vanished from the fight. At that point, Mr. Zot declared Eebrock the winner of the fight as Thomas tried to gain Maxwell's attention. Maxwell acknowledged Thomas, asked where they were staying and told him he would meet them there later. Eebrock collected his 2,000gp purse and the party made their way back to the Brewhaus.
Another Ghostly Encounter
With the open fight night, still another day away, the party decided to spend their free evening prior to the fights investigating the disappearances that have been occurring in the canal district. They learned that the people disappearing were considered "undesirables", orphans, drunkards without families, etc and that the disappearances began when the party arrived in Little Pebbles. Spending the day planning for an attempt to capture whomever is responsible for this, the party decided to use Thomas as bait with Bob set up on a bridge over the canal with Eebrock and Jade hiding nearby. After dark, after all the activity in the canal district shut down, the party laid their trap. The bait worked, as the mist appeared just as the shadowy figure in the small canal boat made his appearance in an attempt to abduct Thomas. Thomas immediately identified the boatman as the same boatman they previously saw in the canals and also as the boatman helming the ship that attacked them on the Congenial Bastard en route to the Dwarven Isles. Thomas quickly marked his target and loosed a magical arrow, striking the boatman solidly. Unbeknownst to the party, the same vampiric mist that attacked them at sea was with the boatman again. This distracted Thomas, Jade and Eebrock, forcing them to deal with this threat while the boatman sped away, successfully eluding Bob on the bridge. The three party members fighting the vampiric mist dealt serious damage very quickly causing the mist to retreat into the water, becoming indistinguishable from the rest of the mist. Meanwhile, Bob had managed to leap from the bridge into the boat with the mysterious boatman but he was quickly ejected from the boat and into the canal. The boatman was far to fast for the party to put up any serious chase at this point so once again they came up empty handed. Eebrock managed to get a good look at the boatman and recalled some old arcane information about Merrenoloth, creatures not of this plane that pilot boats on the River Styx. They will occasionally enter into contracts and travel to this plane to fulfill them. Apparently, somebody wants to stop the Adventuring Gofers from completing their mission badly enough to make a deal with an underworldly creature to stop them.
The Underground Fights
After learning that Maxwell Boulder is working undercover to get to the bottom of the illegal fights, our band of adventurers begin making plans to gain access to the fights and try to make contact with Maxwell. Hoping to infiltrate the group by smooth talking with the bartender Rafael at the Giddy Gnome, they head over to the tavern and strike up a conversation. As the fight club is illegal, Rafael stays close to the vest and gives the party no useful information whatsoever. Dejectedly, the party leaves the Giddy Gnome and heads over to see their old friend Jerry at the Dirty Stump. It is good to have friends in low places, as Jerry was happy to provide information about the club and offer to acquire a couple of tickets for Eeblock and Bob to attend the fights that night. Thomas placed a small wager on the favored fighter to show their appreciation for the information and tickets.
Not wanting to be recognized from his earlier visit to the Giddy Gnome, Bob disguised himself prior to he and Eeblock attending the fights. Meanwhile, Thomas and Jade staked the outside of the tavern hoping to encounter their Dwarven target Maxwell Boulder. Nothing of interest happened outside the tavern, but Eeblock and Bob learned that a Dwarf called "The Boulder" is one of the fighters. Clearly, this is their man.
The following day, the party made a visit to Jerry once again to inquire about becoming fighters in the next fight. Once again, Jerry proved his worth and told them how to go about entering the fights during an "open fight" night that was happening in two nights. Jade and Eebrock both jumped at the opportunity to participate under the fighting names the Ragin' Arcadian and the Defender. Bob and Thomas purchased tickets to attend the fights as spectators. This time Thomas made a larger bet against the favored fighter. To prepare for the fight, Jade bought herself a green mask while Eebrock used his special armor to form a helmet obscuring his face as a costume.
The Diner at the Edge of the Universe
Having made their way back to Brewhaus, Dewy informed the party that all funeral arrangements and costs for Morprax would be covered. He also upped the reward for completing the mission to help compensate for the loss of Morprax. After a quick toast to the memory of Morprax, the party members retired to a room for the evening to recover from the strenuous battle and get some much needed rest.
Upon arising in the morning and prior to heading down for breakfast, the party decided to investigate a strange box they found near the body of the large Fire Newt that almost defeated them. Strangely, the box had a slot on the front with the words "insert coin" inscribed upon it. Thomas, realizing the party had already discovered that this box, the extra-planar fire/lava pit in the mine and the red coins the party had acquired were all of the same type magic, warned against using the device until after they found Cornelius Dorlan, the reported expert in this area. Bob however was much more ambitious and decided to insert his sole red coin into the box. As soon as the coin was inserted, a small disc inside the box began spinning and music began playing. The party, strangely enough, then found themselves seated at a table inside a structure that appeared to be circling around a black hole somewhere in space. There were many other humanoids here as well, all acting as if everything were normal, as if they belonged there. Almost immediately, a human approached the party and greeted them as if he knew them and stated that they normally visited as a group of four rather than three. Highly confused, the party began to inquire as to who this person was, how he knew them, and more importantly, where they were. The human introduced himself as Paul Hawkgaze and assured them that they had all met many times in the past, but also acknowledged, a bit surprised, that this was their first visit to what he called the Diner at the Edge of the Universe. Absolutely none of this making sense to any of the party, Paul explained that this location was outside the realm of space and time as the party understood it, that it was a place where people could gain admittance to purchase goods using the mysterious red coins the party had been finding as currency. He also explained that to Paul, he remembered the party from having already met them in what is the party's future but to this place, there is no past and future, only the present. Seeing the party was having a difficult time grasping this, he presented them with a serving platter with a multitude of items upon it. Paul explained what each and every item was and what it cost.
The party having eight red coins as currency were discussing which items would be of most use to them, when a Vedalken dressed in some very heavy armor approached them and greeted them with a hearty "There you guys are, something must have flaked out in transit". Once again, the party was completely confused, but the Vedalken introduced himself as Eebrock, one of their companions, a fellow member of the Adventuring Gofers and the most likely reason they didn't recognize him was that they were brought there from different timelines somehow. Paul appeared to agree with this theory and the party couldn't really find a reason why this would be any crazier than the current situation decided to go along with this. Besides, having lost Morprax, having another companion would probably come in handy, especially one so well armed and armored. The initial three companions had already decided to purchase a Babel Fish for Thomas to understand and speak any language while attuned to this item, a Pen of Spell Changing which allows a spell caster to alter one letter in the name of a spell, changing a word to a different word and thus changing the effect of the spell and a magic long sword with the ability to deal a random type of damage rather than typical slashing damage. Having a few coins left, they offered to purchase an item for Eebrock, their new companion. Eebrock happily accepted their offer and chose a Chef Knife of Fire which deals additional fire damage to any creature wounded by this weapon.
Pleased with their selections, the party inquired how to return form whence they came. Paul informed them that as soon as the song emanating from the box finished, they would find themselves back where they activated the box. He also pointed out that their box had transformed and any time they wished to return, all they had to do was press the red button that now took the place of the initial coin slot. He warned them that this would only work when the party was in a relatively safe space and it wouldn't be able to activate to rescue them from danger. As Paul was finishing this explanation, the song in the box was ending and the entire building began to spin and tip towards the black hole. Just before the structure was sucked in, the party found themselves back in their room at Brewhaus. Deciding it was time for some food and to get the much desired information regarding Maxwell Boulder, the four of them made their way downstairs.
As usual, Dewy was there to greet them and take their orders. He was a bit taken aback at the Vedalken that he had never seen before accompanying the party from upstairs, but already believing the party to be a bit extraordinary, didn't really press them when they simply explained he was their new companion to compensate for the loss of Morprax. Thomas quickly changed the subject of conversation to Maxwell Boulder, to which Dewy kept to his word and informed the party that Maxwell was part of law enforcement, working undercover to break up an illegal fighting club. The description of Maxwell fit about 90% of all the dwarves in the city and the party being unfamiliar with the city, Thomas had a bit of concern as to how they might locate Maxwell in a reasonable period of time. Dewy informed them that he believed there was going to be a fight held in the basement of the Giddy Gnome a couple of days from now. Relieved that they had a location, they formed a plan where they would try to get Jade and Brukk entered to compete in the fights and from there, they would eventually connect with Maxwell. Having finished their morning meal and having some newly acquired gold to spend, they inquired with Dewy as to a shop where they might be able to acquire some healing potions. Dewy immediately replied that the obvious shop was the alchemy shop called the Dirty Bottle. Before leaving for the shop, the party gathered up Morprax non personal items that none of them required to pawn them off at the Threadbare Maiden before making their way to the alchemy shop. Thomas and Bob decided to go into the shop alone to try and barter for a bulk purchase of potions. The shopkeeper was an elderly, blind, Tiefling who spoke very slowly and somewhat softly. She offered a multitude of healing options including various potions and scrolls. Bob and Thomas decided that a couple of normal healing potions and four stronger healing potions would be a good use of their gold. They were able to haggle the price down a little, but most of their newly gained wealth was spent on these potions. Being fully equipped and well rested, it is now time to find the Giddy Gnome and get our two fighters signed up.
Exterminating the Fire Newts
After several minutes of deliberation, the party decided to have Thomas sneak out onto the mine car trestle and make the initial attack utilizing his bow and the Hail of Thorns spell to affect as many fire newts as possible before they have a chance to react. As Thomas made his way out to a position where he could fire with accuracy, he discovered that one of the fire newts was sacrificing the others and tossing them into the lava pit with the large fire newt. Thomas decided his plan was still good as killing the fire newts himself preventing them from being ritualistically sacrificed might be beneficial. Thomas was able to slay 3 newts with that initial attack, surprising the newts and slowing their actions. As his companions made their way onto the trestle to launch their own attacks, Thomas directed them to attack the newt with the dagger trying to sacrifice the others but their attacks failed to bring the newt down. Thomas' second attack also used his Hail of Thorns spell to slay another 4 newts. Unfortunately at this point, the party realized that killing the chanting newts had the same effect as if they were sacrificed. Several of the party members now decided to attack the large newt in the lava pit as this creature most likely presented the most danger to the party. As each member made their attacks, they also made their way along the trestle to get closer and hopefully improve their chances of hitting their target. Jade was particularly anxious to get within sword striking distance of her prey. As the newt with the dagger continued to sacrifice the chanting newts, the fire in the lava pit grew stronger. When there were only 4 chanting newts left, the large newt emerged from the lava pit and made its way to the trestle to take on Jade. Thomas' next attack was directed at the newt with the dagger and his arrow flew true, slaying that newt to hopefully stop the ritual. That left the rest of the party free to focus on the large newt now engaged with Jade. As the party landed their blows against this formidable foe, it eventually proved to be too tough for Jade as it struck her unconscious and proceeded to make its way up the trestle towards the other party members, the trestle shaking with each step of the large creature. As the party continued to launch attacks against the creature, it eventually made its way to Morprax where it quickly struck him down, leaving just Thomas and the new adventurer Bob Biggins standing. The duo slowly retreated as they made their attacks hoping to keep out of the newts range, but it wasn't long before Bob was also struck down by this large newt right in front of the doorway exiting this large chamber. Thomas had already taken refuge behind the wall separating the two chambers when he saw Bob fall. Knowing he wouldn't last long himself against this creature and probably not being fast enough to escape at this point, he decided to drop his bow, draw his two swords and advance towards the newt for a final stand. With the aid of his Hunter's Mark, Thomas dealt the creature a mortal wound with his first sword attack, suffering only a minor wound from the creature himself.
Thomas quickly sheathed his swords and and applied some rudimentary first aid to stabilize Bob then drug him from the now severely damaged trestle to the safety of the other chamber. Thomas then quaffed a healing potion just in case the trestle were to collapse as he made his way to attend to his other badly injured companions. Sadly, when Thomas arrived at Morprax he discovered he was too late to save his old friend. The wounds dealt by the large creature snuffed all the life from Morprax. By the time Thomas made his way to where Jade lay, she was just regaining consciousness. Always ready to jump into the fray, Jade began inquiring about the location of their enemy before Thomas was able to calm her down and inform her the battle was over. As they made their way back up the trestle, Jade was able to drag the body of Morprax back to the other chamber as Thomas stayed to finish off the final four newts that had never ceased chanting.
Bob regained consciousness just as Thomas returned from slaying the remaining newts. The three remaining adventurers decided to use their silver raven figurine to send a message to Dewy, informing him the mission was completed but assistance was required to return the body of Morprax where they could make funeral preparations. It wasn't long before a group of burly dwarves arrived to assist the party members back to the main part of town.
Explaining the Mine Mission
The dwarven guards were not happy with our adventurers in the least. After checking in with Dewy and confirming that he had indeed offered the party a reward for regaining control of the mine, the dwarves still wanted to prosecute the party for breaking into the mine office. It wasn't until Thomas presented the letter from the king and explained that the reason they undertook this mission in the first place was to help advance the larger mission of returning Cornelius Dorlan to the city of Arcadia. At that point, the guards released the party from custody but were unwilling to help them obtain a map of the mine aside from giving them the name Ta'allen Fellow, the mine foreman. Assuming the foreman was a Dwarf, the party decided to visit the Brewhaus to inquire as to the whereabouts of Ta'allen. After a short discussion with Dewy, the party learned that there are no dwarves on sight at the mine and the foreman was another elf. So across the street they went to the Dirty Stump to see Jerry Brandon and hopefully find Ta'allen. There he was found, passed out from over imbibing. Jerry agreed to inform the party when Ta'allen was coherent so the party called it a night and went to the rooms they had rented.
The following morning, the party regrouped downstairs for breakfast and a meeting with the foreman. Ta'allen gave the party a quick sketch of the mine and wished them luck on their mission.
The journey to the mine found a different shop called the Brown Expedition where they were Thomas was able to negotiate a fair price for the goods and get a healer's kit thrown in as well. Now with less gear and a little more coin, they made their way back into the mine. As they arrived at the chamber with the mine carts, loud chanting could be heard coming from the tunnel the rails descended into. There was some faint light also coming from the tunnel so it was decided that Thomas would make his way down the rails to do some scouting. The rails emerged into a large chamber, about 80' above chamber floor where it descended in a series of spirals to eventually reach the floor. Near the center of this chamber was with about 20 Fire Newts encircling it. Inside, the pit was filled with lava and contained one large Fire Newt. It appeared the other newts were engaged in some ritual. Thomas took note of everything he saw, returned to the party and relayed the scene. It's now time to develop a plan for handling this many newts and living to collect the reward.
Cleansing the Mine
After spending an evening of revelry at the Dirty Stump, our party arose the following morning and made their way across the street to take Dewy up on his offer of information and a reward for cleansing the silver mine of a Fire Newt infestation. Dewy was pleased to hear that someone was finally going to do something to get the mine operating again and pointed them in the direction of the mine. On their way, the party stopped at a second hand shop in an attempt to pawn some of their excess supplies - items that belonged to Ruby that no one else could use and held no sentimental value to Jade. They happened across the Threadbare Maiden, operated by Lofina Whitebrand. After Bob spent some time haggling over price, the party decided they were being offered far too little for these goods and chose to hang on to them until another shop could be found.
After a short trip to the outskirts of town, the party arrived at what appeared to be, a completely deserted mine sight. Upon spying the mine office, they decided to check inside for a foreman to obtain a map of the mine and any first hand information available. Knocking against the locked office door yielded no answer, so the party decided to try and pick the lock to enter the office in search of a map. Just as the door popped open, a pair of Dwarven guards approached the party, ordering them to stop and explain why they were breaking into the office. The two guards, believing the party was up to no good insisted the party return to their headquarters for questioning. Morprax offered a different option to the guards. He told the guards he was going to complete his mission in the mine and they were welcome to tag along and help as he began running directly for the mine entrance. Realizing the two guards were in no shape to detain the party, Jade, Bob and Thomas ran along with Morprax to begin their mission. The two guards did not opt to tag along.
The mine complex began as you would expect with a room containing mining gear, lockers and a bench for changing. Upon leaving, the elves had locked all the doors they could hoping to trap the Fire Newts within. This made gaining access to deeper chambers more difficult than the party had hoped. To make matters worse, some of the doors were trapped causing some injuries to the party before they ever encountered a creature. It appeared the traps and doors had taken a toll on the party because the first three Fire Newts encountered by the party got the jump on them. However, the party managed to slay the creatures without suffering too many injuries. After a few more doors and a few more passages, the party entered an octagonal chamber with several mine carts and a rail system leading deeper into the mine. There were four more Fire Newts in this chamber as well Jade wasted no time rushing into the room and throwing a javelin at the nearest Newt. Unfortunately, the rest of the party wasn't as quick as Jade and the four newts quickly surrounded Jade, dealing some heavy wounds but not incapacitating her. The battle was fierce and for a brief moment it appeared as if our party might meet its demise in this chamber. But once again, when things looked bleakest, Jade arose from unconsciousness to get back into the fray. Bob soon had his first near death experience while Morprax, Thomas and Jade kept the newts busy enough they were unable to slay the helpless Mr. Biggins. As the final newt was slain, the party decided this was enough for one day and opted to leave the mine to recover and regain strength before continuing their mission the next day.
Not unsurprisingly, when the party exited the mine, they were greeted by numerous Dwarven guards demanding the party accompany them back into town for questioning. Resisting arrest didn't feel like a wise decision considering the severity of injuries they had suffered so off for questioning they went.
Arrival in the Dwarven Isles
The sea journey from the giant floating turtle island to the Dwarven Isles was smooth and uneventful. Captain Shivers delivered the party to the city of Little Pebbles. His job now being completed, Captain Shivers informed the party that it was up to them to secure their own return voyage as he wanted nothing else to do with them believing that the encounter with the ghostly pirate ship was due to them being aboard. Strangers in a new land tend to all do the same thing, and our party is no exception. It was time to find a tavern and learn the lay of the land. It wasn't long before two taverns were located, across the street from one another. It appeared that one of them catered to Dwarves and the other Elves as these were the primary residents of Little Pebbles. As they were to meet a Dwarven contact named Maxwell Boulder, the decision was made to visit Brewhaus, the Dwarven tavern first. Immediately upon entering, it was clear that this a high end fancy tavern. Jade was eyed very suspiciously, but nobody was openly hostile towards the group as they made their way to the bar to order drinks and chat with the barkeep. The ale was delicious and served in magically chilled mugs. Thomas asked Dewy the barkeep about Maxwell Boulder but it was clear that the party wasn't yet trusted enough to reveal the whereabouts of such an important person. Even after presenting the king's letter, Dewy couldn't be persuaded. Instead, he offered the party a job to clear out some Fire Newts that were causing the Elven mike workers to strike, shutting down the Dwarven controlled mine. They were told that completing this task would earn them a purse as well as the means to contact Maxwell Boulder. Alas, it appeared even more danger was in store for our adventurers. Hoping that they might be able to more easily obtain information on Maxwell Boulder, the party informed Dewy that they would be back for more details on the job and they proceeded to cross the street to the Dirty Stump.
The Dirty Stump was almost the exact opposite of the Brewhaus. The patrons were all Elves and they were quite raucous. It was a raging party atmosphere. Relying on Jade's half-elven heritage, the party entrusted her to take the lead in this establishment. Jerry Brandon, the barkeep, had no information regarding Maxwell Boulder but was able to explain to the party that almost all the patrons in the establishment were striking Elven mine workers. It was now easy to understand the dynamic of this city. The Dwarves are the ruling class and the Elves are the working class. Needing some work, Jerry informed the party that they could earn free ale for the night and 5 gp for each rat they were able to eradicate from the basement. Understanding that this job sounded too easy, but believing they would be able to handle whatever surprises were in store for them, they agreed and made their way downstairs. Morprax led the way and immediately spotted a rat in the far left corner of the room and quickly speared it. At that instant, an enormous rat burst from a barrel and breathed fire upon the the three party members on the stairs, missing Thomas who hadn't entered the room yet. This was obviously the reason nobody had taken up the 5 gp reward for killing rats. It was a relatively short battle but the party was successful in slaying the rat abomination. Mr. Biggins had survived his first taste of adventuring and the party had now endeared themselves to the elves.
The Party's New Look
Jade, being distraught at the loss of her sister, propped her body against a wall so it didn't lie submerged and the party decided that Ruby's death would be meaningless if they didn't continue on their search for the treasure. It wasn't long before the party encountered a room with a single, trapped and locked chest in it. Jade was able to disarm the trap and unlock the chest. Upon opening it, a single letter was found inside with a single sentence upon it. It appeared that the the treasure hunt was nothing more than a hoax. Jade's anger was now boiling over as she began hacking the chest with her sword. As Thomas attempted to make his way into the room and towards the chest, shattering glass could be heard from within. Thomas was able to calm Jade enough to examine the chest and determine there was a false bottom. There was indeed a treasure at the end of this hunt. Seven gemstones, a quiver of arrows, a silver figurine of a raven and several, now broken potion bottles were hidden beneath the false bottom. The party gathered everything and returned to Turtle Bay along with the body of Ruby.
Upon returning to the resort, Jade was able to locate someone who could perform funeral rights the following morning. The party then spent the remainder of the evening celebrating the life and their friendship with Ruby. Jade had quite the evening of imbibing and frolicking with other resort revelers. Shortly before dawn, the party was awakened, Ruby's lifeless body was placed in a small boat and the funeral rights were performed. The boat was set adrift and Thomas fired a flaming arrow to ignite the craft and complete the funeral. After the funeral, the party returned once again to the tavern as the final repairs to the Congenial Bastard were being completed. Mr. Biggins joined the party as he had not yet been given his share of the treasure. Upon him joining the party members, Thomas realized there was something different about him. He was now more invigorated and demonstrated he now possessed arcane abilities. After confessing that the previous day was the most exciting of his life, he expressed interest in joining the party and taking on the life of an adventurer. There was some disbelief in the sudden change on Mr. Biggins and Jade was initially completely uninterested in adding him to their group but the decision was made to give him a chance just as Capt. Shivers informed the party the repairs were completed and it was time to depart.
Turtle Bay
After successfully fighting of the ghostly pirates, the Congenial Bastard came upon a massive turtle floating in the sea. This turtle measured hundreds of feet across with structures built upon it as well as earth, plants and trees, effectively serving as a floating island. Captain Shivers decided this was an excellent location to repair the damage to the Congenial Bastard that was suffered during the previous night's battle. Being informed by Captain Shivers that the repairs would take about two days, the party decided to investigate the island as there were many ships already docked in the harbor. In the center of a cluster of shacks was what could only be considered a resort, complete with pool and tavern called Turtle Bay. Seeing the crowd at the pool were all unclothed and enjoying the sun and water, Jade immediately stripped down joined them in the pool. Ruby remained a bit more modest but also took in the scene at the pool. Meanwhile, Thomas and Morprax went to the indoor tavern to have an ale and inquire about this strange, living, floating island. After a short discussion with the barkeep, an elderly human approached Thomas and Morprax, just as Jade and Ruby made their way indoors after discovering the pool wasn't exactly the scene for them. Jade was immediately told that entry was only permitted if she put pants back on, so she quickly complied - remaining topless - and joined Thomas and Morprax just as the elderly human sat down with them.
The human introduced himself as Bob Biggins and after confirming that the party were indeed adventurers, he revealed a treasure map and offered the party the lions share of the treasure if they assisted him in recovering it. Thomas spent a moment examining the map and determined that it was indeed a legitimate map of the island which did indeed lead to something. Whether it was treasure or not, would only be learned by following the map. Knowing it would take only a few hours to travel to the destination and back, the party decided to help Mr. Biggins, hopefully earn some treasure and pass some time while the Congenial Bastard was being repaired. The party gathered their gear and set out to search for treasure.
The map was very easy to follow thanks to Thomas' map skills and it wasn't long before a cave was discovered exactly where the map indicated the treasure would be found. This cave was right against the ocean and was already filled with ankle deep water so the party knew they would need to work quickly if they were to be successful in their treasure hunt. It turns out this cave wasn't as much a cave as it was a designed structure. There were tunnels and doors inside. A marching order was established and the quintet began to negotiate the tunnels in search of the treasure. The first room the party encountered had bones lying submerged on the floor. Both Thomas and Ruby sensed this was suspicious and used their powers to determine the place was rife with undead. Expecting trouble, Mr. Biggins shifted to the back of the line as the party members began to file into the room. Ruby immediately pounded one of the pile of bones but nothing happened. It wasn't until a door on the other side of the room was opened that the two skeletons that Ruby identified as undead animated, arose from the water and began to attack the party. Ruby made quick work of one of the skeletons but the other proved much tougher and took the party a bit of work to finally defeat. Due to the rising water levels, there was no time to take a short rest to bind wounds and heal before continuing on their treasure hunt. After continuing down another tunnel, another room was entered which of course contained several more skeletons. Due to the narrow hallway and the difficulty moving about in the now knee deep water, it took quite some time to get the entire party involved in the battle. This proved quite detrimental as the skeletons outnumbered the party members and they were quite adept with weapons. It took quite some time to gain the upper hand in the battle but before that happened, Ruby was struck down. Due to the difficulty of the battle, it was some time before anyone was able to break away from the fight to render Ruby aid. To everyone's chagrin, aid came too late this time. There was no life left in the body of Ruby, she had fallen victim to the one enemy she was most adept at fighting.
The Departure of the Congenial Bastard
The party finally having a night's rest at Hammer, Inc arose in the morning and made their way to the docks in search of their transport. Upon arriving at the proper dock, they were greeted by the hook-handed Long Sean Shivers, captain of the Congenial Bastard. After introductions were completed, the captain showed the party their quarters on board and had the crew prepare for departure. The ship was manned by a crew of 15 sailors and had several canons on board to defend herself against any potential pirate attacks. Captain Shivers expected relatively fair weather and an approximate week long voyage to reach the Dwarven Isles.
The twin sisters, Ruby and Jade were not accustomed to sea fairing voyages and the constant swaying of the ship upon the waves left them both a bit queasy. This was an unfortunate situation, as several hours into the voyage, canons could be heard in the distance where it appeared pirates were attacking an unarmed merchant ship. Thomas, always eager to help those that are helpless, attempted to convince his companions and the ship captain that this was an opportune time to turn the tables on some pirates. Even the allure of a potential reward and all the spoils of the pirate ship were not enough to convince the captain, nor the rest of his party that this was a good idea, so the Congenial Bastard just sailed along its charted course.
As Ruby and Jade suffered throughout the day, it seamed that every sailor had a different idea for a cure to their seasickness. None of them worked however and it actually appeared that most of these recommendations were in jest to have a laugh at the expense of the suffering twins. Knowing that going below deck would only make her queasiness worse, Jade took the advice of one sailor to try and appease her stomach up in the crows nest. Ruby, Morprax and Thomas went below to get a night's sleep in their hammocks. It may not have been the best idea to have an inexperienced sailor in the crows nest, as it took some time for Jade to realize that the sudden, heavy fog that rolled over the ship was accompanied by another ship, illuminated by some ghostly lights. Once she realized the potential gravity of the situation, she rang the bell alerting the crew and her companions to the approaching danger.
It took a moment for our below deck adventurers to make their way topside. In the meantime, Jade had made her way down to the deck from the crow's nest as crew members and Captain Shivers prepared to defend their vessel. Just as the sleeping trio made their way up to the deck, a darkness spell covered most of the deck in impenetrable darkness while some bipedal fish creatures climbed their way onto the Congenial Bastard from the waters. Unbeknownst to the trio, Jade was battling a vampiric mist in the middle of the darkness. The fearsome and gruesome, ghost-like captain of the other ship caught the attention of Ruby and Morprax, causing them to become stricken with fear. This provided the fishmen attacking the trio an edge in combat and much to Thomas' dismay, he was only able to launch a single arrow before he was engaged in a melee combat. Cannon blasts roared from each ship against the other. One of the cannonballs struck near our trio, raining splinters upon them as if a trio of fishmen weren't already enough for them to deal with. The battle raged on as the fishmen went into a frenzy once their foes were injured. The ferocity of their attacks was almost more than the party could handle, but eventually, the fishmen were all struck down. There was no time to celebrate, however. As soon as the last fishman fell, the vampiric mist emerged from the darkness and made its way towards Ruby. It believed it had drained all the life it could from Jade and now searched for a stronger life force. The creature was resistant to most physical damage and to make matters worse, each time it injured Ruby, it gained an equivalent amount of life force it drained. Fortunately, Morprax was able to utilize divine some divine magic against the creature while Thomas struck at it with his two swords. Just as things looked at their most grim, Ruby laid unconscious on the deck with the creature attempting to drain the last of her life force, the remaining duo of heroes managed to land enough blows to dispatch the vampiric mist. At the creature's destruction, the darkness upon the deck was lifted and our two heroes saw Jade lying at the feet of Captain Shivers. The captain of the enemy's ship, losing his fiercest ally made the decision to push away from the Congenial Bastard in search of easier prey. Prior to vanishing into the darkness, he pointed towards Thomas and Morprax and made a throat slitting gestured while staring at them. Is it possible that our party is being hunted by someone? Was our tail in Arcadia more nefarious than the city guard ensuring we didn't try to leave the city?
Morprax applied some magical first aid to stabilize the twin sisters. It appears the battle knocked the seasickness out of them as all were able to go below deck to get some rest for the evening. Several days asea passed without further conflicts. There was even a school of dolphins that helped the navigator sail the ship into a stronger sea current to help expedite their journey.
The Council's Decision
After departing from the meeting with King Baptiste, the party visited Claymore and Flanigan's to pick up some healing potions and replace some items lost during previous encounters. On the way, Ruby noticed they were being followed by someone, but believing it was probably somebody hired by the King's advisor to ensure the party didn't leave the city, Thomas and the crew just continued to the shop. Items were procured at fair prices, and with nothing else to do until a new job could be found, they made their way to the Spirits, the watering hole next to Morprax's blacksmith shop and the place where the party first met and started their adventuring career. Upon leaving Claymore and Flanigan's, the party was still being tailed, but by a different person. Thomas becoming a little uncomfortable with the thought of a different tail, attempted to turn the tables and hide amongst the crowd and tail the party's tail. The new follower was too perceptive however, so Thomas just joined his fellow adventurers for a drink and some planning for what was to come next.
Spirits was beginning to get a crowd, so Thomas scanned the room for fellow adventurers, hoping to get a lead on a job or find out more information about the Seven Snakes. Ruby on the other hand, wanted to find out for certain if Governor Demetre had indeed sent the Seven Snakes to Nightstone, and if not, ensure he was aware they were illicitly using his name to get what they wanted. Not listening to her sister Jade, Ruby just got up, walked out of the inn and headed towards Hightown in search of Demetre. Believing it was a bad idea for Ruby to wander the city alone, the remainder of the group went with her to convince her this was a bad idea and to come back to Spirits for dinner and get a night's rest at Hammer, Inc. Eventually, after roaming Hightown aimlessly without encountering anybody, Ruby agreed with her compatriots and they all returned to Lowtown. After a meal and some small talk with other adventurers, the group called it a night and made their way to Morprax's shop where they attempted to get some rest. Little did they know, someone else had plans for them that evening.
Shortly, after laying down for some rest, there was a loud knock upon the door. When Morprax answered he discovered a dozen city guardsmen outside demanding their presence in front of the council. The party, needing work anyway, felt no need to resist and followed the guards into Hightown where they were led to an unmarked building and taken down several flights of stairs where Tim, the king's advisor Tim, awaited their arrival. It was now, that Tim informed the party that they were being hired to locate and return the Lizard Folk archaeologist Cornelius Dorlan to help get to the bottom of whatever is going on in the Whispering Caves. As payment for completion of this task, the party is being offered a magical rope to help them hide in a pocket dimension when things are getting desperate. Passage aboard the ship Congenial Bastard to transport the party to the Dwarven Isles where it was believed the archaeologist was currently working had already been secured and was scheduled to depart in the morning. Due to the circumstances in which the party were brought before the advisor, they felt they didn't have much choice when it came to accepting this quest or not. Nevertheless, Thomas successfully secured additional funding to offset the return voyage and any incidental costs they may incur on the Isles while in the employ of the crown.
Returning the Crown
The party rested well for a night in the village of Nightstone. Ruby read some of the book that was recovered from the body of the orc leader and discovered that there is a Cult of the Eclipse and these orcs, the obelisk and the ritual in the Whispering Caves are all somehow tied to this cult. Ruby and Morprax then revealed that the previous day they had each shared a vision of what appeared to be an eclipse with a humanoid creature in front of it. After the vision, each of them found a strange red coin in their hands. The same coin was also found inside the book of the orc leader. It appears that both Ruby and Prax are somehow being pulled into whatever it is that is going on. Upon learning all of this, the party decided it was now time to head back to Arcadia to collect their reward and report the events happening around Nightstone to the king. It was decided that bringing a villager to the city with them would help convince the king that their story is indeed true and something very powerful and beyond their understanding is happening here. Upon hearing a villager was required to journey with them, Morak pushed his way to the front of the line to volunteer. So the party with Morak in tow, set off for the two day journey to the capital city.
Aside from helping a farmer mend a fence that was damaged by the elven hunting party, the journey to the city was uneventful. Upon arriving at Arcadia, it was decided that the party would first visit Hightown and the king before making their way to Hammer Inc and a refreshment at Spirits down in Lowtown. They group made their way to the familiar clerk's office where they explained that they had fulfilled the king's errand and they had items to deliver to him. Several guards were summoned and the party was escorted to the king's viewing chamber. King Baptiste was quite eager to have is crown returned to him but sadly, it was in no state to serve as a crown as the goblins had damaged beyond repair and removed the crystals to use in their strange ritual. A state of disbelief was upon the king's face at seeing what was left of his crown. It took a moment before the king was ready to hear how the crown came to be damaged this way. The party told the story of tracking the Goblins to Nightstone, the arrival of the Seven Snakes in Nightstone, the goblin leader and the strange ritual in the Whispering Caves, the theft of the obelisk from Nightstone, the assault on NIghtstone by the orc horde and how it all tied together with the Cult of the Eclipse. The king took a moment to discuss this with his advisor and decided it would be best if the party remained in the city until the council had a chance to deliberate over all this information and determine a course of action. The party was given their promised reward for slaying the goblins and returning the crown, as well as an additional stipend to help cover their expenses of staying in the city until further notice. As the party had some goods to sell and supplies to obtain in the city, at least for now, not being permitted to leave isn't a bad thing and they received 20 gp to do so. As the party made their way from Hightown into Lowtown and the watering hole known as Spirits, Ruby noticed that they were being tailed by someone, most likely in the employ of the king to ensure the party doesn't leave town. Only time will tell what comes next for our party, but at least for now, they are safe and comfortable in the city.
Nightstone's Residents Come Home
After spending a second night in the woods, the party had some difficulty determining their next course of action. Thomas, Jade and Morak the innkeeper all wanted to march back to Nightstone with all the residents and evict the Seven Snakes from the town. Ruby was adamantly against this idea fearing the plan was destined to fail. It was eventually decided that Thomas, Jade and Ruby would go to the edge of the woods and scout the town to determine the difficulty involved in retaking it. After spending about an hour watching the town, no activity was noticed so the decision was made to take back the town. An advance group consisting of the party would proceed to the town first to secure the gate. When they arrived at Nightstone, they discovered heavy sled tracks leading out of the gates, found the town empty and the obelisk in the center of town missing. With the town being empty, Ruby returned to the refugees in the woods to escort them back to Nightstone. On the way back, she heard the war horns of orcs approaching Nightstone. Ruby hurried the group along, into the city and informed the party that some orc visitors were on the way. Thomas immediately went to the top of a guard tower to watch the road. He was joined by Jade on the other tower. After some time, the orc horde emerged from the woods, armed and ready to take the town. Their leader offered to let most of the residents escape with their lives if the town was turned over to the orcs. Thomas, understanding the party had the upper hand by holding the town refused any negotiations while Jade and the orc leader shouted insults at one another in orcish. As the orcs began to rush towards the town walls, Morprax joined Thomas and Jade atop the guard tower to help thin the orc horde before they reached the town.
Aside from lighting the walls and guard towers on fire with flaming arrows, the initial orc assault was futile as there was no way to gain access to the town via the main gate. The orc horde then headed away from the main gate area, where the town could be entered from the banks of the river where the bridge connect the keep and the town proper crossed. Our intrepid adventurers, along with Morak and the guards, all made their way to the keep's bridge to confront the orc there. This is where the real battle would take place. Fortunately, the opening in the walls was only about 10' so Ruby, Jade and Morprax were able to keep the opening blocked well enough that the orcs couldn't swarm in. Morak and two of the town guards rushed past the three party members to engage in battle with the orcs. Thomas remained at a distance but within sight of the bridge opening and sent volley after volley of arrows at the horde, sticking many orcs with them. The orc leader, realizing things weren't going well let out a battle cry to rally the horde and rushed into battle himself, forcing his way to the front line. This rush got the better of Ruby but not before Morprax dealt a massive blow to the orc leader, forcing his attention upon himself. Thomas was able to rush in and heal with Ruby with some magic while Jade continued to strike at orcs and Morprax engaged with the orc leader. Once Ruby was healed and back in the fight, Thomas quickly returned to his sniper position and using his Hunter's Mark upon the orc leader continued to pepper him with arrows, eventually sending one directly through the leader's throat, slaying him.
It was at this time, more horns were heard from the woods, this time it was Jade that recognized them as elven war horns. Seeing their leader slain and the party along with Morak dropping more than half the orc horde, the remaining orcs fled in the hopes they could escape the elven hunting party. With the orcs routed, the party could now focus on organizing the villagers to extinguish the many fires the orcs had set along the walls. With the villagers working feverishly at saving their town the best they could, Thomas went to the body of the orc leader to see if he had any worthy possessions. The only thing of note to be found was a book, written in orcish. Ruby was quite interested in the book and seeing that Thomas couldn't read it, he gladly handed the book to Ruby for her to peruse. It was decided that the party would take advantage of having a town to rest and recover for the night before setting out for Arcadia the following morning.
The Goblin's Prisoners
After stabilizing Ruby, Jade and Prax attended to the bound and gagged prisoners while Thomas posted up at the chamber entrance with his bow at the ready, prepared to welcome any goblin scouts that may come looking for the boss. Knowing that it would take some time for Ruby to awaken from head trauma Prax began questioning the now freed villagers while Jade spent some time looking at the wall behind the spot the goblin leader stood when the party entered. Unrecognizable runes and the gemstones from the king's crown were inscribed and embedded into the wall, all of which were aglow. Jade noted that they appeared to be glowing brighter now than they were when the party first entered the chamber and she proceeded to try and pry one of the gemstones from the wall. That proved to be more difficult dangerous than expected as a blast of arcane energy rendered Jade unconscious once again. Fortunately for everybody in this party, Prax is skilled healer and he quickly stabilized Jade. After a short while, both Ruby and Jade were up and about again. It was learned that there were other villagers elsewhere in the cave complex but these three did not know where. A large stone was being used as a door to seal off a an opening in a corner of the chamber. Jade and Ruby were able to move the stone which revealed what could only be the bed chamber of the goblin leader. An old chest with a rusty lock was the only thing of interest here and as Thomas attempted to check the chest for traps, the lock disintegrated revealing some treasure for their troubles. Unfortunately, after thoroughly searching the chambers and the corpse of the goblins, there was no sign of any information as to who hired the goblins to steal the crown.
As Thomas was uninjured during the combat with the goblin leader, it was decided that he would lead the three freed villagers back to the clearing in the woods where the guardsmen and other Nightstone villagers were gathered awaiting the return of the party and villagers they rescue. While Thomas made this journey, the remaining party members tended to their wounds and used some of their healing skills and magics enabling them to recover enough life force to proceed on their search for villagers once Thomas returned. It was agreed that the most likely location of the prisoners was down the tunnel the other goblin fled after the ogre combat. It turns out, they were wrong. After venturing down that tunnel a short ways, Ruby noticed a freshly stripped goblin skeleton just as Thomas placed a torch into one of the many holes that lined the wall of this tunnel. Unbeknownst to all, including the goblin, this entire tunnel was the hunting ground of an amorphous blob of some sort. As Thomas plunged the torch into the hole, his arm was immediately engulfed by this blob, delivering a dizzying amount of acid damage, incapacitating Thomas and damaging his armor to the point it is no longer useful. As the party scrambled to grab Thomas and exit the tunnel, Prax was also attacked by this thing, with similar results, leaving the twin sisters to drag their companions from the hall and back to the relative safety of the cave entrance chamber.
Once Thomas regained consciousness, the party chose to search a different tunnel for the prisoners and this time it proved fruitful. A chamber full of many bound and gagged villagers was discovered, including Morak, the Dwarven inn keeper that lead the initial defense against the goblins at Nightstone. The party had to break the bad news to Morak regarding the current status of Nightstone and explain that they would be lead to the forest clearing where the rest of the villagers and the remaining town guard were encamped. It was approaching dusk as everyone was reunited at camp and plans were discussed regarding what the next steps were to be. Will it be seeking refuge at the nearby village of Dawnbark, or, with the entire village reunited and the party fully rested, is it time to retake Nightstone? This is a decision that will need to wait until morning.
The Goblin Boss
Realizing there was no chance for a stealthy attack, Ruby entered the chamber where she discovered a handful of goblins guarding what had to be their boss at the far end of the room. There was also the muffled sounds of what the party surmised to be villagers coming from an unseen alcove at the far corner of the chamber. Not knowing how many goblins remained in the cave complex, Ruby attempted to bargain with the goblin leader for the release of all the prisoners and the jewels from the crown in exchange for the necklace Thomas was able to smuggle from Nightstone and allowing the goblins to keep their lives. It was a week bargaining position for the party and despite Ruby's smooth talking and golden tongue, the goblin boss was not willing to part with anything more than 1 villager. Noticing that Ruby was making no headway with the negotiations, the party grew restless, believing a fight was forthcoming. Thomas used his small size and nimbleness to push his way past the party and into the chamber. The fight was on!
Arrows flew from Thomas' bow as well as several of the goblins. The goblin leader tossed a bag of powder at the party which magically incapacitated the twin sisters. Fortunately, they were easily roused and rejoined the battle quickly. That wasn't the only trick up the boss' sleeve, however. He continued to toss bags at party members which burst in bright light, temporarily blinding the struck hero. Thomas used his cunning, stealth and nimbleness to stay out of harms way while launching arrows at the goblin guards trying to keep their attention away from his companions. Few arrows managed to find their mark though, so the goblins paid little attention to Thomas. That is until Ruby and Jade were struck unconscious. At that point, the battle looked bleak as Prax was also severely injured by the time one of the goblin guards rounded the corner into the tunnel Thomas was using as cover. This forced Thomas to drop his bow and draw his two short swords. This both surprised and distracted the goblin enough that his attack towards Thomas went astray giving Thomas the opportunity to deliver a mortal blow to his foe. Sheathing the swords and taking up the bow once again, Thomas turned the corner and his aim was now true and none to soon! A goblin guard stood above the incapacitated Ruby, about to deliver a killing blow when Thomas' arrow flew directly through the open mouth of the goblin, penetrated through the back of the throat and pinned him to the wall. There was still little hope for victory, but the tables were about to turn. Apparently the twins both have a knack for shrugging off unconsciousness in the midst of battle. No one in the chamber expected to see Jade leap to her feet and strike a devastating blow to the goblin leader, drawing his attention from the seriously wounded Prax. That's all it took for Prax to deal the final blow to the goblin leader as Thomas finished picking off the goblin guards. Once again, the party managed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Now it was time to free some villagers.
The Whispering Caves
After spending the night in the woods with the exiled villagers and guards of Nightstone, fending off an attack by a pack of wolves, the party made their plans for both protecting the villagers in the woods and recovering the villagers in the caves. It was decided that the town guards should remain with the villagers in the woods and the party should explore the caves to find the rest of the villagers. Thomas took it upon himself to spend a couple of hours scouting the area around the cave and gather as much information as possible regarding the cave and any possible guards. A couple of potential stealthy entrances to the cave were discovered, but the party decided the best course of action was to cull the number of enemies in the caves by luring some of them from the cave and eliminating them from hiding positions prior to entering the caves.
Things did not go as planned however. Ruby engaged in dialogue with one of the unseen cave guards, but was unable to convince the guard to exit the cave. Instead, the guard launched a net from the cave, which Ruby narrowly avoided but grabbed hold of. Ruby was now engaged in a game of tug-of-war, trying to pull the guard out of the cave. Jade, seeing that Ruby was not fairing so well in this struggle rushed out of hiding to aid her twin sister. Alas, even the two of them were no match for the other side and they were quickly drug into the cave. At this surprising turn of events, both Prax and Thomas rushed towards the cave to aid their friends. Once they entered the cave mouth, it was easy to understand how Ruby and Jade were so easily defeated at the tug-of-war - the front line guards were ogres! Fortunately for the party, the ogres and goblin archers in the chamber were far too confident in their position. Prax managed to use some divine magic and quickly slay one of the ogres. This unnerved the remaining guards and the party made quick work of the second ogre while Thomas fired arrows at the goblins, slaying one. The remaining two goblins fled down separate passages that exited the entrance chamber.
The party, expecting that the villagers would be well guarded, decided to follow the goblin that screamed for his "boss" as he fled down the passage. After a short travel through the tunnel, it opened into another chamber. At the opening of the chamber, the party found what was left of the treasure they were seeking. The king's crown was severely crushed and missing all of its gemstones. Clearly, this chamber was going to determine whether the party's quests ended in success or failure.
Nightstone's New Troubles
As the party rested within the keep, making plans for a recon mission to the Whispering Caves, Thomas heard horses riding into town. Already a little uneasy with the disappearance of the stranger, he stealthily made his way from the keep, back to the village proper and close enough to the group of riders. Low and behold, in the town center the stranger was conversing with several of the riders. Thomas overheard her tell them that all the able bodied men were out of the village and only women and children were in the keep. She boldly stated that the Nightstone was theirs for the taking.
Ruby also had suspicions and had crossed the bridge and was attempting to untie it from the village side to make access to the keep more difficult. Thomas quickly informed Ruby that the riders, along with the stranger, were trouble, lent her a shortsword to cut the bridge free once Thomas crossed over to the keep. Once Ruby was back across the gap, Thomas relayed to the guards and Prax what he overheard but there was no time to make plans. One of the riders was already present at the gap in the bridge hailing an audience. The party and guards made their way to hear what the newcomer had to say. The rider informed them that they were a mercenary company called The Seven Snakes and were working under order of Governor Demetree to take the village for their use. The rider might have been more persuasive if Thomas hadn't overheard the conversation between the riders and the stranger. Not wanting to tip his hand to his own skills in stealth, Thomas played along with "believing" the rider meant no harm. The townsfolk had until dusk to either flee the village or face an assault from these newcomers. The odds were stacked too heavily against the party and remaining guards, so it was decided that they would surrender the village to the Seven Snakes and lead the villagers to the Whispering Caves to rejoin with the villagers that had already fled. Knowing the mercenaries would take anything of value, Ruby, Prax and Thomas attempted to smuggle some of the town's wealth, in the form of golden necklaces, out of the village. Thomas' skills with stealth enabled him to hide his necklace upon his person that it wasn't found when they were searched prior to being granted passage out of the village. The same cannot be said of Ruby and Prax.
At this point, it was dark and the ensemble had to make their way through the woods to the caves by torchlight. It was difficult going but fortunately the guards knew the way and it was only a mile. After some troubles, mostly suffered by Ruby and Prax being less accustomed to traveling through the woods at night, the caves were spotted. There was no apparent signs of any inhabitants, so it was decided that the party, along with Gregg and Ford would approach the caves, announce themselves and their intentions to reunite the villagers. Upon making themselves known, a voice was heard from within the cave, encouraging to make their way to the caves. To Thomas' ears, the voice appeared to struggle with the common tongue and the demeanor of the voice felt menacing. The guardsman Gregg confirmed that this was no voice he recognized, so the two of them were able to persuade the rest that it would be wiser to find a copse in the woods to make a suitable camp until daylight.
Nightstone's Last Stand
After preventing any major fire damage in the temple, the party carefully made their way south towards the keep. The passage was not easy as several goblins were encountered on the way with more wounds being inflicted by bow and crossbow fire. The keep was well defended by being on an island with a single, bridge connecting the high elevation island to the rest of the village. A ten foot section of the bridge had been recently destroyed, most likely in an attempt to prevent the goblins from overrunning the keep. With difficulty, the party managed to make their way across the the gap and near the guard houses of the keep itself. Thomas took the initiative to hail the guards, informing them of the party's intentions to help the villagers but also being in need of some aid and a short rest to bind wounds and prepare to purge the goblins from the village. The guardsmen Gregg and Ford warned the party against any funny business and admitted them into the keep where they discovered to Lord of the village had been slain by goblin arrows prior to the sabotage of the bridge. It was also learned that none of the able bodied males were here at the keep, just the women and children. The lack of mass villager casualties in the streets convinced the village guards that the fighting force must have been overrun and fled the city to the Whispering Caves where they could regroup before returning to take the village back.
After completing a short rest in the keep the party, along with Gregg and Ford set out on a mission to eliminate any remaining goblins from the village. Thomas took point and stealthily made his way from building to building, identifying where goblins were and organizing the attacks against said goblins. Few of the goblins expected any resistance from the villagers at this point, so the mission proceeded quickly and relatively painlessly with only minor wounds being suffered in the skirmishes. Upon reaching the inn and defeating the lone living goblin downstairs, a presence upstairs was made known. Not knowing whether it was a goblin or a villager, Prax attempted to lure the being downstairs by making some erie whispers magically sound at the bottom of the stairs. Ironically, there were two dead goblins pinned to the wall with arrows already at the bottom of the stairs. A crashing sound was heard and Thomas noticed a shadowy form fall to the ground outside the inn. Rushing outside and hailing the form which was clearly not a goblin, Thomas engaged in a quick conversation where the woman wielding a bow explained that she was a guest at the inn and hid upstairs during the goblin assault. Drawing the conclusion that this was the person that dispatched the goblins at the bottom of the stairs, Thomas and Ruby attempted to convince the stranger to accompany them as they finished their rounds of the village. The stranger denied responsibility for the goblins and stated that it was most likely the inn keeper that dispatched them. Feeling that she would be of little help to the party, she insisted on heading to the keep where she might be able to offer some aid there. Seeming honest, albeit a little unwise in not sticking with the group, the party and guardsmen let her go on her way while they continued to seek and destroy the last remaining goblins.
Upon returning to the keep, a crude, rope bridge had been erected across the gap in the bridge, seemingly by the recently met stranger, making entrance to the keep much easier. The guards remaining at the keep confirmed that it was the stranger that had constructed the bridge as she made some investigation into the status of the remaining villagers. However, the stranger was nowhere to be found at this time but no one had seen here leave. This bit of news left the party a bit baffled but Ruby was in desperate need of more rest and wound attending so the party once again took a rest to prepare for an expedition to the Whispering Caves to retrieve the villagers that fled. However, things weren't going to be that easy...
Nightstone Under Assault
After defeating the bandits and freeing the mule that was pulling the bandits' cart, the partied continued along the trail of the goblins and wargs until nightfall where camp was made to rest and prepare for the likely goblin encounter the following day. Early the following day, Thomas and the party tracked the goblins to the small village of Nightstone. As they neared the town, they could hear a steady ringing of a bell. The warg tracks lead directly to the open drawbridge. The party cautiously entered the town and investigated the two guard towers, one on each side of the town gate. Both towers were empty but the mechanism to close the drawbridge was in one tower and the party decided to close the drawbridge, trapping the goblins in town where, with any luck, they'd be able to recover the crown and with the help of townsfolk, slay the invading goblins.
Once the drawbridge was closed, the ringing of the bell stopped. Expecting it was goblins ringing the bell in the temple, the group slowly approached the temple with a plan to burst the door open and use ranged attacks on the goblins inside. Unfortunately, the plan didn't account for warg mounted goblins hiding behind the temple. Once Prax magically opened the door, the hidden goblins and wargs got the jump on the party and struck some vicious blows. The party was no easy pray however, so one of the mounted goblins raced towards the guard tower to open the drawbridge allowing for an easy goblin escape. Prax was able to mortally wound that warg after its goblin rider entered the guard tower and Prax proceeded to race towards the guard tower to bring an end to that goblin. Ruby and Thomas, both of whom were severely wounded in the initial stages of the conflict remained to fight the remaining mounted goblin. Both Ruby and Thomas managed to bring down the warg but suffered serious wounds, rendering them both unconscious. Ruby was able to snap out of it as Prax approached to render aid and Ruby used divine powers to stabilize and heal some of Thomas' wounds. The two goblins hid inside the temple while the party retreated to the guardhouse to reclose the drawbridge and determine a next course of action. They didn't have much time to plan however, as smoke began to billow out of the temple. The party rushing towards the temple to extinguish the fire, noticed the two goblins climbing ropes over the village wall in an attempt to escape. Sending ranged attacks in the direction of the goblins, one was slain but the other managed to escape. After a short period of time, the party managed to extinguish the flames within the temple. It was then decided that they would make their way towards the keep at the southern most portion of the town due to the lack of townsfolk in this portion of town.
Pursuing the Goblins
After the remaining goblins were defeated by the guards, the king who was very appreciative of the parties efforts to protect him, offered them a reward of 50gp each if they are able to retrieve the crown. As further incentive to slay as many of the dastardly creatures possible, a reward of 1gp per goblin ear pairs was offered. Thoms, with his hatred for wargs, needed no further convincing to take on this quest, quickly picked up the trail of the wargs and led the party out of the city and into the surrounding wilderness in search of the thieving goblins. The warg trail was easy for Thomas to follow and the party moved effortlessly through the wilderness.
Eventually, the warg trail crossed the main road, where the party happened upon a man alongside a wagon with a broken wheel. Clearly distraught over his inability to repair the wheel himself, the man asked the party if they might be able to help him get on his way. Prox feeling this was an excellent opportunity to use his skills to help some in need, offered to use a Mending spell to quickly make the repairs. Upon casting the spell, Prox then noticed that the damage to the wheel didn't compare consistent with the description of the events causing the damaged offered up by the cart owner. At that moment, before being able to alert the party of any potential danger, two bandits with crossbows revealed themselves hiding up in trees, bows aimed at the party. It was at this time, the cart owner identified himself as the leader of this group of bandits and demanded the party turn over their belongings to him. With a bigger mission on the line, the party was not going to surrender quite so easily and they decided to make a stand and teach these bandits a lesson. Maybe the party was a little overconfident in their abilities or maybe the bandits were just a little too well prepared but the fight didn't not go well. Thomas had much difficulty getting his arrows to fly true towards the bandit leader. Prox attempted to use divine fire to at the least burn one of the crossbow wielding bandits from the trees, but multiple attempts did nothing more than singe the bandit's clothing. Meanwhile, Ruby and Jade moved into flanking positions of the bandit leader in an attempt to subdue him, but he was more skilled than expected. After striking Ruby down twice and then Jade, the leader threatened to outright murder the twins if Thomas and Prox didn't surrender. Thomas opted to put down his bow, but Prox was having none of that. As the leader was distracted by Prox's attack, Ruby emerged from unconsciousness, imbue her war hammer with Divine Smite and strike down the bandit leader. Upon witnessing the defeat of their leader, the crossbow wielding bandits disappeared into the woods, undoubtedly to search for easier pray.
King Baptiste's Feast
After slaying a goblin and recovering the note with their plans to attack at dusk to capture the crown, the party continues on their journey to Hightown, taking with them the slain goblin as proof of the diabolical plan. Surprisingly, the party makes it to a government building where they present the golden prawn as well as the slain goblin and the note describing the goblins' plans. The clerk calmly and confidently informed the party that the guard would be notified of the goblin situation immediately, then proceeded to present the party members with passes to the King's Feast as well as the bath house where they were to make themselves more presentable for the feast and take some time to recover from their ordeals of the day.
After relaxing and recovering in the bath house, the party makes their way to the feast where they are escorted to the feast by the same clerk. Once in the feast hall, the party members each go their own way to mix, mingle and survey the scene. Ruby spends some time chatting with Demetri, one of the kingdom's governors, in an attempt to discern if there was any possibility the goblins may be working for someone. Prox has an encounter with the King whom informs Prox there is no need for concern as the guards that are present are more than competent enough to protect the king and his crown. Thomas finds that some of the guests are alarmed by the news that goblins were within the city, but none of them feared for their safety at the feast. Jade sampled several of the wines made available for guests and surveyed the room from her seat. Much to her chagrin, she found quite an unpleasant wine, but Jade being Jade, consumed it anyway.
Eventually, as the time neared dusk, the king made his way in front of the large window looking out over the city to make his speech. The party, being seated near the king noticed through the window a group of goblins and wargs as they crashed through the glass. How this many goblins made it unmolested to the king's location isn't clear, but the guards were outnumbered and the king was knocked to the ground, losing his crown. Quick to action, the party leapt to action. Thomas fired arrows at the warg carrying a goblin nearest the king while Ruby, Jade and Prox moved in incapacitate the same enemy. The goblin riding the warg managed to retrieve the king's crown from the floor and attempted to use his mount to carve a path out of the hall. The party however had the warg all but surrounded. Realizing that an attempt to exit by force would lead to a defeat, the goblins abandoned the warg and deftly fled the scene with the crown. The warg managed to delay pursuit before finally being slain by Jade but the goblins and the crown were now long gone.
The Beginning
Thomas traveled to the city of Arcadia to take in the Festival of Lights. Seeking a refreshing ale, he entered the tavern named Spirits where he joined a table where twin Half-Orc, Half-Elf sisters Ruby and Jade. Shortly after sitting down, the trio was joined by Prox, a Loxodon blacksmith that owns the adjoining shop. The group was informed by the tavern owner that his prawns were the best in town and was the best menu choice as the city wide festival included special ticket, in the form of a golden prawn, to dine with the king. The groups prawns were delivered shortly thereafter and dumped on the table for consumption. Thomas scanned through the fare looking for a golden prawn, but Ruby had already grabbed a handful of them and accidentally bit into the prize. The tavern owner loudly exclaimed them as the contest winners and the entire establishment erupted into excitement.
Unfortunately, several patrons desired this prize for themselves. Ruby was besieged by violent patrons trying to steal the prawn. Thomas made his way to the door where he intended to defend his new friends with his bow. Prox cast a fog cloud which disoriented the attackers giving him an escape route and Jade the opportunity to KO one of the attackers and lead a badly injured Ruby to the exit, where the group fled to Prox,'s smithy to rest and regroup.
After a short rest, the party decided to make their way to High Town and claim their entry to the King's Feast. Enroute, the party was separated in the massive crowd when Ruby and Thomas found their way into an alley to try and stake out a way to locate their friends. They were not alone in this alley. Three goblins were hunched over a piece of paper muttering amongst themselves when they noticed the new arrivals and bared daggers intending to charge. At that moment, Thomas drew his bow and fired a stray arrow at the nearest goblin as the trio charged. A small melee battle ensued which ended promptly with the arrival of Jade and Prox. Thomas was able to slay one of the goblins with an arrow and the party retrieved the note which indicated the goblins were planning a raid to "capture the crown".
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