Summaries

June 4 [CC, JK, MA, TB, TC (2012-12-1)]

• Hot summer day in L'Trel.
• Julie finds a miniature suit of armour at a merchant, and steals it.
• Then an explosion happens on top of the mountain.
• Karn is looking through a telescope and is blinded by the flash. He has a brief vision of spinning gears before he falls in front of Doc Archibald's practice.
• Rain of fire and debris causes devastation and panic.
• Archibald and Karn deal with a runaway horse dragging a halfling.
• Archibald gets into a fight with the horse while Karn drags the halfling away.
• Halfling, Kerga, gives Karn an earring as thanks.
• Julie and a bard rescue an old lady from a burning building.
• Most people get together near Doctor Archibald's business, which is burnt down.
• Archibald climbs up a five story building to rescue M'tilda and her baby from a fire.
• Second Lieutenant L'Roi recruits people into the army.

June 4-5 [JK, MA, TB (2012-12-16)]

• Ensign Ricky and Felicia joins the squad.
• Go down to docks to fight the fires on burning boats
• Julie "checks out" the brandy in the hold, unsupervised.
• Next day she has a hangover.
• Go investigate burnt out area.
• Attacked by swarms of rats.
• That area is now called Rat Alley.

June 5-10 [JK, JS, MA, TB (2013-1-20)]

• Fight house fire
• Squad is still recovering from rat bites.
• On evening patrol, encounter ghouls. Kill them.
• Hear disturbance. Investigate.
• Stop break and enter of jewelry store.

June 10-11 [JK, JS, MA, TB (2013-2-3)]

• During meal, hear story about how fires are still flaring up.
• Go to clock tower in the evening to look for them.
• Karn really enjoys being in the clock tower a lot. Feels right.
• Meet Brodert Quink as he is looking through Old Light.
• Julie carves her name on a stone there.
• Spot goblins rooting through trash on the beach below.
• Hear that one of the robbers of the jewelry store has escaped.
• Old man screaming on the streets leads squad to suspect ghouls are still about.
• Investigate church cemetery. Meet Naffer Vosk who is the caretaker.
• Find an infestation of ghouls around the gazebo. Kill them.
• Find a hole under the gazebo where the ghouls came out of. Go back to report it.

June 12 [JK, JS, MA, TB (2013-2-17)]

• The next day, ordered to go back to clear them out.
• Another squad joins to keep watch.
• Go down the hole. Find a maze of tunnels.
• Fight rats.
• Find spiked pit traps in the incorrect way.
• Rescue some people trapped in graves covered in tombstones. Fight one who was actually a ghoul
• Ghast comes to investigate.
• Lead the rescued people out.

June 13 [AS, JK, JS, MA, TB (2013-3-3)]

• While leaving the tunnels, Ricky is nearly grabbed and run off with by a ghoul
• L'Roi sends them back to wipe out the ghouls
• After a long trek they discover the chief ghoul, a corpulent monster.
• It is presiding like a king over others, and eating corpses.
• Hard fight with it and its minions that it eventually flees from.

June 20 [AS, JK, JS, MA, TB (2013-6-9)]

• Goblins escaped into the basement of the glassworks.
• The entrance to the basement was guarded while the rest explored the rest of the glassworks. There were no other survivors. Found the corpse of Lonjiku Kaijitsu.
• Go into the basement. Find broken down brick walls.
• Goblins attack, with their leader Tsuto Kaikitsu. All are killed.
• Find incriminating evidence in Tsuto's journal.
• Find Ameiko Kaijitsu badly injured and tied up. She describes her half-brother's betrayal.
• Take Tsuto's body and journal to L'Roi and describe what happened.

June 20 - 21st [AS, JK, JS, MA, TB (2013-6-23)]

• Go on patrol. Fight fire. Julie thinks she saw a small humanoid dancing in the fire.
• Next day, called in to L'Roi. Another team investigated tunnel under glassworks. They didn't come back.
• Go investigate. Find formerly bricked up passage. Broken through from the outside. Humanoids and a single goblin had gone through.
• Find corpses of soldiers. Kill the two sinspawn responsible.
• Find statue of woman. Take masterwork ransuer from it.
• Battle three more sinspawn in an ancient prison.
• Going up stairs, attacked by a bat winged fiend head. Soil a pool of clean water with its remains.
• Find stairs going up that are blocked off. Doc Archibald makes friends with a rat that has a blue eye on its stomach
• Find shrine to Molag Bel. And a pair of rat growing from the same tail.
• Cathedral of Wrath with a glowing pool and a rat with blue feathers. A small female quasit summons more sinspawn by dripping her blood into the pool, which dims from the effect. This seems to make her worried.
• Long battle. Karn tries to use his blood in the pool, but the created sinspawn promptly attacks him.
• Fight is finally won when an enlarged Krusk grabs the quasit from the air and pins her down.

June 21 - 22nd [AS, JK, MA, TB (2013-6-30)]

• A detect magic on the magic pool. It is overwhelming.
• Dynith thinks he seems some writing on the wall. It disappears quickly.
• Explore rest of the place.
• Find ancient torture chambers with the remains of past prisoners: one with three arms, another with an enormous skull, and the final with no legs and a rib cage all the way to the pelvis.
• Another large chamber has a dozen pits covered with wooden lids and a zombie at the bottom of each one.
• A crazy three armed goblin shoves Karn in a pit with a zombie then starts spitting acid and people.
• Go to barracks for healing.
• Next day go back to finish investigation.
• Find room that levitates things in it. Grab some treasure from it.
• Check the smuggler tunnel and find where the goblins had camped
• Report floating room to Council of mages. It is very bureaucratic. In the evening patrol, there is a man preaching about burning things to a mob, and then gives a free demonstration.

June 22 - 24th [AS, JK, MA, TB (2013-8-25)]

• Fight citizens enamored of Torca, arsonist preacher. He gets away.
• Next day, assigned to new commander, Captain Tarran. Baron X'celsiah is in attendance. Get a raise.
• Prepare for expedition to Thistletop.
• Dynith meet Shayliss who attempts to seduce him. He exits gracefully before her father arrives.
• On the 24th, travel to the Nettlewoods. Then spend 4 hours trying to get through it.
• Find tunnels in the nettles and thistles near Thistletop.
• Find a hole in the ground to a sea cave.
• Find a view that shows the island, which looks a bit like a head. See a hanging bridge to it.
• Discovered by Birdcruncher refugee goblins. Slaughter them all.

June 24 - 25th [AS, JK, JS, MA, TB (2013-9-15)]

• Find a pen of goblin dogs and kill them.
• Alert a Firepelt cougar and its druidic master. He does a number on the party.
• Cross the rope bridge to Thistletop.
• Create a hole in the wall and sneak up to kill goblins in a watchtower.
• Kill sleeping goblins.
• Attempt to attack the throne room, but have trouble breaking down a wall and opening a door.
• Eventually kill Warchief Ripnugget.

June 25th [AS, JK, JS, MA, TB (2013-10-20)]

• Recover from the battle with Ripnugget.
• Search the Thistletop fort. Find a few staircases to a lower level, but only do brief sojourns.
• Kill a pair of goblins sleeping in a watchtower. Kill four playing "killgull".
• Discover a magnificent, black warhorse locked in a shed, nearly starved to death. Archibald feeds it and makes friends with it.
• Go down to the lower level, where there is a warroom. Grab the notes of the plan.
• Krusk hurts his shin on a chair and screams in pain. There is sounds from the other room, but nothing emerges.
• Investigate the room. No one is there, and no obvious exits. It has tools for archeology. There are many Thassilonian artifacts.
• A search reveals a secret door with stairs going down behind it.
• Go down to try and catch whatever fled. Find room with statues to the Runelord of Greed. Hear women talking from beyond the door.
• Going through the door, Julie sets off a deadly trap, but dodges away in time.
• Nualia comes out, with anger in her eyes and murder in her heart. She has one demonic arm, and looks cool.
• A fiendish hound howls and sets two of the party running.
• Karn gets tripped by the hound, and Nualia proceeds to eviscerate him. He does not survive.
• The rest of the party flees.
• They recover the horse and try to cross the bridge. Unfortunately it is trapped. Doctor Archibald falls into the water, but the horse manages to jump back to the land safely.
• The bridge is repaired and made strong. They leave Thistletop to return to L'Trel.

June 25 - 26th [AS, JK, JS, MA, TB (2013-11-10)]

• Encounter crazy man called Tim on the way back to L'Trel. He follows them.
• Report results to Captain Tarran, and ask for reinforcements. It will take a couple of days to get them.
• Give horse to Baron Xelsiah.
• Go on routine patrol the following day.
• In the evening, discover that a group of thugs have broken into the catacombs of wrath. Only one survivor, Marcus. From the description, it is Nualia and her gang
• Follow the trail into the catacombs.
• Ambushed by a big bugbear and Orik. The Bugbear flees and Orik surrenders. His stuff is taken and he is tied up in the dark.
• Find Nualia at the Runewell. She is doing some ceremony. She is surrounded by demonic hounds, zombies, the bugbear and her wizard minion.
• The hounds howl, sending the bugbear, Julie and Tim fleeing.
• Nualia enters the Runewell and disappears.
• The other minions are killed, but the wizard turns invisible.

June 26th: Nualia Ascendant

With all of the minions dead or fled, the members of Team Lightning regrouped and approached the triangular pool that Nualia had entered. It was filled with churning, bubbling water that looked almost like translucent lava. While wisps of what looked like heat and steam rise from the strange orange liquid, the room remained deathly cold. There was no sign of Nualia.

Marcus had an arrow in his bow, ready to skewer her if she emerged. Krusk spent his time cracking his knuckles. The others surrounded the pool.

Then it happened. The liquid started bubbling furiously, and an ill wind emerged from it, pushing everyone back.

And then Nualia appeared in an explosion from the pool. At least it was assumed to be Nualia, but only peripherally. Instead of a single demonic arm, her entire body was red skinned. Her midriff belly still had the scars, and they leaked a green ichor. She didn't walk out, but ascended, floating above everyone; her new wings looking like blood forced to stay in place. WIth her violent emergence, the liquid sprayed everywhere, covering everyone with it.

Marcus shot his arrow at her. It bounced off her arm, but succeeded in attracting her attention. She looked at her arm, and then turned her dead eyes to stare at him. She tilted her head, almost looking confused that anyone would think they could harm her. Her gaze never wavered as she drifted through the air towards him, her large sword's tip dragging on the floor behind her with an awful scraping sound. Marcus started to back away. Krusk moved to intercept her. In Tim's ear, the ghost of Karn cackled.

Then a golden, glowing arm erupted from the pool, accompanied by a low chord sound. The hand reached for the ceiling briefly, before grabbing at the side. Nualia looked at it intensely. Then simple said "You will die later" as she flew swiftly from the room.

The arm pulled the rest of its body out of the pool, revealing a small, beautiful child. Her skin was gold, and the glow filled the room with hope. She gasped for air, and collapsed next to the pool. Julie approached her, daggers drawn, but feeling that she should help the helpless. When it was clear that the child was no danger, and was in fact dying, she cradled her. "Who are you?"

The small girl looked up with frightened eyes. After a ragged cough, she croaked "I… I… am… her innocence." She blinked, and her head wobbled about, as if she was having trouble focusing. Then she grabbed Julie's arm, and with a deep voice said "You must stop her. With Karzoug she will destroy everything." Then she shuddered, and collapsed. Her last breath draining out of her body audibly. Then, with a finality, the glowing ended.

Julie looked at the others in confusion, looking for answers as what to do next. After a few moments, Dynith was the first to speak, "Uh, Julie. You might want to step away." Julie looked down and saw that the girl's glowing had started again. This time though, it was not a steady gleam. The body was radiating light, but inconstantly. Every few seconds it would flash out brighter, mimicking a lightning strike. The air crackled with power. Dust started to fall from the ceiling.

Then the big flash happened, and that was the last thing anyone remembered.

When Team Lightning woke up, something was different. Everything was different. It felt like an unseen world had been glimpsed. They looked at each other, and they seemed more vibrant, as if the colours of the world were more saturated. Or as if they were seeing colour for the first time.

June 26 - June 27 [AS, JK, JS, MA, TB (2013-11-17)]

• Leave the catacombs and meet Captain Tarran. He lead them to where Nualia is destroying the town.
• Nualia strikes down Tarran and battle is engaged.
• Nualia is driven off.
• Go out for drinks in the evening.
• Next day, travel to Thistletop to clear it out. Hear the L'Trel Devil in the distance.
• Explore Thistletop.
• Find goblin women and children.
• Search temple to Molag Bel.
• Fight "tentacle rape beast".
• See goblin art gallery.
• Descend to lower levels.

June 27 [AS, JK, JS, MA, TB (2013-12-8)]

• Explore lower level. Recover Karn's corpse.
• There are many representations of a man in robes clutching a book and a glaive.
• Find Nualia's journals.
• Explore a crypt and get attacked by three shadows that badly hurt the group.
• Rest for eight hours.
• Go into the secret parts.
• Get attacked by a barghest named Malfeshnekor, several goblins and Nualia.
• One goblin leaps across a pit of fire, spins on Krusk's glaive, slides under Doc's mace, and then ends up skewered by Julie.
• The barghest is killed, and Nualia escapes.
• Explore rest of complex, but don't find any secret treasure rooms.
• Find magical image of the represented man, making a speech. When translated, he is saying "...is upon us, but I command you remain. Witness my power, how Alaznist’s petty wrath is but a flash compared to my strength. Take my final work to your graves, and let its memory be the last thing you...". It constantly repeats.

June 27 - July 14 [AS, JS, MA, TB (2014-1-19)]

• Do maintenance work.
• Doc bribes Brodert Quink to stay in town. 50gp a month.
• While on patrol, weeks later, encounter a fake squad: Slavers taking slaves.
• When losing, slavers threaten to kill slaves. Threat is ignored by Krusk and Dynith so three citizens die.
• One of the slaves is Brodert Quink. Slavers were under orders to capture him specifically.
• They were led by a Satyxis, a minion of Lord Toruk.
• Slaves are drugged and unresponsive.
• The next day, Justice Ironbriar sentences Satyxis to hang. Others to life at hard labour.
• After trial, called to important meeting...

July 14 - 15 [AS, JS, MA, TB (2014-1-26)]

• Meeting with Tarran. Asked to investigate two murders, the second one had Julie's name on a note.
• Murder is at tannery. Determine that Donny Harker was the target, and Katrine was innocent bystander.
• Murdered was barefoot and staked out the tannery from across the river before going through it to climb into a window and do the deed.
• Person who discovered the body reveals that Donny was stealing money from the business which would be a problem for the Scarnetti family.
• Lars, who runs the mill, is surprised to find out about the stealing.
• Krusk goes through contacts to see if Scarnetti's did it. Doesn't think so.
• Doctor Archibald goes to Titus Scarnetti and gets assurances that they weren't involved.
• Brodert Quink tells all he knows about Thassilon. Also decides he can't leave with the military and goes home.
• Katrine had a necklace that wasn't found at the scene.
• The next day, Julie goes to jewelry store and gets them to look out for it.
• Given letter of introduction ad then travel to the sanitarium to see witness of first murders.
• Hear the L'Trel devil off in the distance.
• Come across man who was mugged by two talking bears who claimed to be prostitutes.
• Track the bears down. Have conversation with them. Fox seems to be leading them astray. Give them food and then back away.
• Arrive at sanitarium. Tim has unpleasant memories of the place.
• Erin Habe isn't helpful, until Krusk makes him.
• Erin brings down Grayst, who is mumbling to himself.
• When Tim casts calm emotions on Grayst, Erin panics, bangs a door and then runs upstairs.
• Orderlies try to get them to leave. They resist.
• Then some zombies come up the stairs.
• In the confusion, Grayst runs out of the room.

July 14 - 15 [AS, JS, MA, TB (2014-3-2)]

• Necromancer, Caizarlu Zerren, comes out of the basement to command his zombies. Casts a Stinking Cloud that causes issues.
• Eventually he is knocked out and taken prisoner.
• Grayst goes running into the woods, looking for "His Lordship!" There is the distant baying of the L'Trel Devil.
• Caizarlu was an investor in the sanitarium and doing research into ghasts.
• Another patient comes down, Pidget, who tries to get Doctor Archibald's sword. Pidget is knocked out as well.
• Everyone goes out to track down Grayst. Start hearing the baying of hounds and a hunting horn.
• Eventually they are found by the hunting party. They are fey looking for a fox.
• Julie is entranced by a jewel hanging from the faery princess. However she is caught.
• The faery princess uses the jewel, the Siege Perilous, to transform Julie into a cat-person.

July 15th: The Wild Hunt

Crashing through the bush is a single huge black hound. It has licks of green fire for tongues, and green fire for eyes. It looks at the people and gives a howl. There are two other howls in the distance, surrounding the group. These are followed by the sound of a hunting horn.

Soon enough, a huntsman appears. This man is mounted on a towering, burning equine that stands upon smoking hooves. One paws the moist ground and licks of flame and steam sizzle up. Hellfire shimmers in their hateful eyes. The huntsmen wears black leather and hooded cloaks showing only glowing green eyes. His head is crowned by a set of stag antlers. He holds an evil looking spear.

In a low voice, as if he had been smoking for years. "Have you, by chance, seen a fox?"

Another huntsman suddenly appears on the other side of the party. This one is similarly dressed, but female. She speaks "Naj, These are mortals."

Then she reaches up and pulls back the hood of the cloak. The change is breathtaking. Where before was an ominous avatar of death, there now is the most beautiful woman you have ever seen. Her cloak completely falls away, and she is dressed in a garlands of flower and a burst of glowing orbs erupt from around her. "I haven’t seen one in ages. Not since those silly men tried to take you away from me." A voice as sweet as the praise on angels. Then she looks down at Julie, with a slight evil smile. "We should bring them along. Or chase them instead."

Naj speaks in his gravely voice. "Edain, we are after 'friend' fox. Let us not be distracted."

"Daddy would let me." Her pout makes everyone feel empty inside.

"No," Naj says ominously. After Edain stamps her feet he continues, "Finnbheara asked us to bring back fox."

However, during this conversation, she had moved her horse forward. She was right next to Julie. There was a beautiful black gem inlaid in a gold amulet. It was hanging from a cord on her side, just inches away from Julie. And her back was to the small girl. Julie couldn't resist and tried to slip it away.

Quick as a snake, Edain grabbed Julie's hand before she could so much as touch the treasure. Her evil smile was there as she exclaimed, "Look Naj, they do want to play!"

Her eyes narrowed and she looked straight into Julie's soul. "Are you so interested in this bauble? It would be a shame not to let you try it." She dangled in front of Julie. "It’s called the Siege Perilous. It’s ever so pretty, don’t you think?"

Julie felt drawn into the gem, but after the flash of light, she was still standing where she had been. Nothing seemed to have changed.

Except now she was more cat than human.

July 16 [AS, JS, MA, TB (2014-3-23)]

• Julie enjoys new catness
• Edain introduces herself as "Princess of the Fey. Grand Duchess of the Sapphire Cliffs. Primmadonna of the singer of endless mirth."
• She wants to play cards. Specifically "Tricks"
• Cards cause strange things to the winners. Doc draws "Mountain Man" and becomes big. Marcus draws "The Demon Lantern" and turns into a glowing gem. Julie draws "" and becomes the Countess of the Cat People. First joker explode into syrup. Second one into feathers. Tim bets his hat, and it becomes enchanted. The ghost of Karn gets cursed to hear fiddle music for a week.
• Edain becomes bored and decides to just follow the group as they go about their task.
• They stalk Grayst, with Edain conveniently making the trail glow.
• Find him talking to "His Lordship" who is obsessed with Julie. "You! You’ve come to me! I knew my letters would sway your heart, my love! Let us consumate our... our... hunger!". He was formerly Aldern Foxglove, but is now a powerful ghoul.
• Aldern is unstable, and starts crying. Then breaks into a wide grin. "I wonder how your deaths shall affect your friends. What things might you have done that will go unfinished? What will those broken promises spawn? How will your murders shape the world?"
• Fight happens, with Edain making things more difficult. Fires happen. Trees get grabby. Dynith gets placed in a well that he doesn't know how to swim in.
• Aldern is destroyed. Find not on the body. It's written in Necril.
• Edain decides that the group wasn't amusing enough. Enchants them: Doc can't talk for a day. For Dynith, all water tastes like vinegar. For a day, Tim will start being tickled if he stops moving. Krusk's scars start glowing. Julie is given a bauble that will let her show her old face.
• Edain leaves. After she is gone, a fox comes out of hiding and says "That was fun. We must do it again sometime." Then wanders off.
• Go back to asylum. People have escaped.
• Go back to town in the morning. Meet a man along the way that has a bunch of branches in a wedding dress. He says to not trust foxes.
• Krusk gives a report to Tarran because Dr. Archibald can't talk. It goes as well as usual.
• Try and get things back to normal. Read the note in the evening.

July 16-18 [AS, JS, MA, TB (2014-4-6)]

• Finish up getting people recovered. Doc is no longer big. Marcus is no longer a gem.
• Overnight, the army sunk a boat in the river that was ignoring hails. Assumed to be pirates.
• Investigate the wreck. There are silt eels that attack. Find a coffer with silver coins and a dead rat.
• Remains of the only body on board has a holy symbol of Urgotha.
• Report discovery to Tarran. Rest of the day spent recovering from poisonings in the wreck.
• While the party had been at the sanitarium, a farmer came to town about undead stalking the fields. Several of the soldiers went out to investigate. They came back on the night of the 17th.
• Captain Nolan was one of the soldiers. He killed ghouls that were pretending to be scarecrows. Krusk talked to him about it at breakfast.
• Spend rest of the day selling useless loot.
• Krusk asks Brodert Quink about the note, and is asked about the clocktower.
• After harassing Doc in the middle of the night, they agree to investigate the tower in the morning.
• The soldier that usually mans the tower, looking for fires, seems to be under the effect of a charm spell.
• Go in to investigate. Inside, while poking around a cart, they are attacked.

July 18 [AS, JS, MA, TB (2014-4-27)]

• Battle a scary flesh golem dressed as a scarecrow.
• Go up the rickity stairs.
• Bell is suddenly dropped, hitting Krusk and Marcus and dropping them to the ground floor.
• Meanwhile, attacked by evil outsiders who use the dangling chains to attack.
• Rest of the party tries to fight, but uses a feather fall to drop to the ground.
• Outsiders try and use chains to bar the doors, but Krusk breaks through.
• Regroup outside. The creatures don't follow.
• Dr. Archibald goes to Tarran to report. Another squad is assigned to help guard the tower. Team Lightning will assault again tomorrow.
• When Dr. Archibald mentions Team Lightning, there is a crash of thunder in the distance.

July 18-20 [AS, JS, MA, TB (2014-6-1)]

• Camp out for the rest of the day and overnight in front of tower to prevent anything coming out.
• Enter tower again and finally kill the evil chain monsters.
• Marcus and Julia go check out the roof. They are surprised attacked by an invisible snake women. They flee.
• Camp out for the rest of the day and overnight in front of tower to prevent anything coming out.
• Attack and kill the snake woman. Find interesting note.

July 20-30 [AS, JK, JS, MA, TB (2014-6-15)]

• Report findings to captain. Discover that there is plague starting. There has been no recent contact with Fort Rannick, 400 miles away.
• Julie gets legacy from Simon Kantiki by being the last of the Gatra.
• Marcus and Tim investigate well, and are asked for help by Grau Soldado. He saw them defeat Nualia and is hoping they can help his sick niece. Tayce Soldado.
• Marcus and Tim go to home of Tayce Soldado. Meet Ishani Dhatri, priest of Sivis, who is trying to help the daughter Brienna Soldado. They are unable to help immediately.
• They return the next day with sufficient funds to pay for cure. Learn that Brienna had found money on the shore several days previously.
• Group checks out the river. Decide to mount another expedition to the shipwreck.
• Julie has meeting with Council.
• Shipwreck now has a sea hag and sharks living in it. Decide to leave well enough alone.
• Ishani asks for a meeting at the temple of Sivis. Crowds are an issue.

July 30 - August 3 [AS, JK, MA, TB (2014-7-13)]

• Ishani asks for help meeting with army officials.
• Escort him to military camp. Discover general announcement is going on at citadel by Field Marshal Cressedia Kroft.
• Doctor Davalus is introduced from Magnimar. He will be spearheading a group of healers who are going to combat the plague.
• Learn that the idle rich are having a party in a locked up manor to wait out the plague. Investigations show it is just a party.
• A perfumery owned by Vendra is selling a cure. Investigations make it look suspicious. A bottle is purchased.
• The "cure" is taken to an alchemist Tacota North. Learn Nolan is also using the alchemist for other research.
• Arrest Vendra.
• Deyanira asks for help finding her brother Ruan, who was supposedly performing at the idle rich party. He has been missing for days.
• Investigate party again. Zombies.

August 3 - 4[AS, JK, MA, TB (2014-7-27)]

• Fight zombies of partygoers. There is an invisible crazy lady who is not helping matters.
• Kill zombies and capture crazy lady Jolistina Susperio.
• Sole survivor is Ausio Carowyn. No sign of Ruan anywhere.
• Take Jolistina to authorities. Question her by charming her.
• Ruan was given to her boyfriend, Rolth along with some of the new physicians.
• Tim successfully converts her to the Dark Tapestry.

August 4 [AS, JK, JS, MA, TB (2014-8-24)]

• Captain Tarran doesn't believe claims of Jolistina.
• Party goes investigates the hospice.
• Reception is pushy and doesn't let people in. She is bullied past.
• In the infirmary, because they didn't leave immediately, they are attacked by guards and doctors.
• Find a lift with a secret option that requires a key.
• On the upper floor, find a room full of uninfected halflings being experimented on.
• Dr. Davalus tries to sneak past. He is caught and beaten up. Find the key.
• His notes describe odd fact that some halflings are apparently immune. He is investigating how to counteract this.
• Go down the lift. Set off traps on doors.
• Guards are killed.
• Find another room with cloaks and masks. Marcus opens the door to the next room where there is something waiting.

August 4 [AS, JK, JS, MA, TB (2014-9-7)]

• Kill priests of Urgathoa; one gets away.
• Find medical area where someone has left the doors open.
• Find big room with vats of disease and many enemies.
• Necromancer casts spells at party while priests and zombies get in the way. Lightning bolt nearly kills half the party.
• Marcus takes many spells on the chin; he is paralyzed, and nearly thrown in a disease vat; he is caused to suffocate.
• Necromancer teleports away.

August 4 - September 4 [AS, JK, JS, MA, TB (2014-9-28)]

• Looting of the bodies is interrupted by the high priestess.
• The high priestess floats above everybody casting spells at them. She creates a wall of stone to block escape.
• After she has had enough being peppered by Marcus' arrows, she comes down to him and kills him.
• With her on the ground, people are able to get into melee combat with her and kill her.
• Creepy things start happening, outerwordly energies revive the high priestess as a horrible undead monster.
• Party tries to flee deeper into the temple, but finds only a dead end.
• Tim discovers a tentacled man doing experiments on a halfling. The man asks not to be disturbed.
• In the next chamber there are glass cylinders containing undead horrors. They make their final stand there.
• With desperation, they all attack the undead monster and successfully kill it.
• While Krusk bashes down the wall of stone, the rest of the party loots the temple. Find note about Rousillion.
• The purple tentacled man negotiates to be left to go on his own. For 2000gp he also leaves the halfling.
• When they escape the dungeon they are arrested by the military for attacking the hospital of the Dr. Davalus.
• The Doctor had told a story and then was let go. He is nowhere to be found.
• Explanations are given at to Cressedia Kroft. Their story checks out, but it is going to be kept quiet.
• Marcus will be honored for his sacrifice.
• Next day, destroy undead horror in glass cylinder.
• Several days later, try to clear Rat Alley. No success.
• Celebration for Captain Nolan discovering cause of explosion.
• Released from service at the end of three months. Asked to investigate Fort Rannick for 1000gp.
• Decide to go there via a route that will go past Rousillion and Sundown.

September 5 - 15 [AS, JK, MA, TB (2014-11-2)]

• On the way to Fort Rannick, stop at the village of Rousillion.
• Village is strangely quiet.
• Julie investigates and finds a lone zombie.
• Rest of party comes and kills it.
• Ransack a potion store; interrupted by two more zombies.
• Go to centre of town and then to a promontory; on the way back blocked by a single zombie.
• Then suddenly a lot of zombies.
• Big battle happens. Church bells start ringing.
• Survivors of the village are holed up in the church. Regroup there.

September 15 - 16 [AS, JK, JS, MA, TB (2014-11-16)]

• Meet the survivors of the village.
• Priest Danovich is just mumbling to himself. His assistant is comforting him. Muret has taken charge and orders people about.
• Plan to make a break for it the next day.
• In the early morning, Cureoski and Kara slip into a quiet area for personal time.
• When Julie goes to investigate, Danovich gets upset. Summons large amounts of zombies.
• Hordes of zombies keep coming. Survivors keep dying. Attempts to distract the zombies only delay the inevitable.
• Julie goes to the quiet area and heads into the basement. She finds the animated corpses of Cureoski and Kara. Danovich's son is an undead monster.
• Circe finds an alternate route into the basement from Danovich's room.
• Danovich's son is killed, and all the zombies collapse.

September 16 - 18 [JK, JS, MA, TB (2014-12-6)]

• Jorgen survives and takes charge of village.
• Survivors are found in other places.
• Danovich and his assistant are alive and watched over by Tim
• The assistant is discovered to be Achler too late. Tim let's him go check out the remains of the church.
• Achler steals a book, the Libre Blaspheme from within the altar and rides off.
• Circe catches up with him. He is killed trying to escape.
• The next day, take a shortcut to the village of Sundown.
• In the evening it starts to rain, and they come across an unknown village.
• Discover the village is populated by building sized mimics that attempt to eat the party.
• After two people are eaten, they are beaten off and the party escapes down the road.
• Arrive at Sundown the next day.

September 18 - 21 [AS, JK, MA, TB (2014-12-20)]

• Go to bar. People are on edge. Meet Dennis who questions Tim's convictions. Talk to Father Matthias who gives some information about Tim. Asks for help about bad omens.
• Two days ago the local wizard, Arris, died in the standing stones and two of them are missing now.
• Overnight Arris's body comes out and tries to kill people. Krusk, buck naked, kills it in a single round.
• In the morning, ask Tim's family about him. Daughter Zoot seems nervous.
• Circe investigates the circle itself.
• Gillan, the town elder, asks for help, prompting Tim, Dynith and Krusk to go search Arris's house.
• Arris thought the stones were petrified farmers and had purchased a ring of depetrification to test his theory.
• Crash the funeral to steal the ring from Arris's body.
• Depetrify a stone revealing an ancient primitive who is very confused.
• Learn the history of the stones and realize a horrible beast has been loosed.
• In the church, primitve recognizes chalice as belonging to the beast.
• Boy tries to steal chalice in the evening, obviously charmed by the beast.
• The next day, admit everything to Betty and family. Tim is confused.
• Discover Tim's problem from Zoot.
• Prepare for the festival the next day.
• During the Festival of Seeds, the Beast transforms from small child into horrible monster.
• Proceeds to smack the party around until finally killed.
• Tim throws up a lot. He is feeling better.

September 22 - 25 [AS, JK, MA, TB (2015-1-11)]

• Tim stays with his wife and children.
• Others use magic to create horses to travel to Brahim and then to Pendaka
• Meet Shalelu in Pendaka who is also going to Fort Rannick.
• Arrive in Turtleback Ferry and talk to Maelin. No contact from the fort for a month.
• Leave in the morning to go to the fort.
• Encounter a trapped firepelt mountain lion who is very friendly.
• Inbred hick arrives with dogs, claims he is hunting kitty
• Runs away crying after his dogs are killed. Cat wants to follow him.
• Track to farm. Attacked by banjo playing hick.
• Start going through farmhouse. Very trapped, filled with angry hillbillies.
• Avoid screeching woman who is verbally abusive.
• Find bones of dead female babies.
• In the basements is a mean plant guarding a chest. It ate Julie.
• In the chest is equipement that Shalelu recognizes as her stepfather's.

September 25 [AS, JK, JS, MA, TB (2015-1-25)]

• Hear some crashing from above and threatening by the screeching woman, Mammy.
• When going to investigate Mammy, she is gone.
• Outside the hicks are gathering to fight.
• Attempt to sneak out the top window.
• Circe discovers that screeching woman can fly.
• Mammy tells her kin to kill the prisoners.
• The hicks are easily taken care of. Mammy fights harder.
• Mammy is eventually killed in the barn, where three prisoners are found.

September 25th: The Survivors of Fort Rannick

After Mammy Graul was killed, Team Lightning scrambled to check on the prisoners. There were three humans, all unconscious. Unfortunately, while their attention was focused on them, they didn’t notice a spider, the size of an elephant starting to creep up the webs from the pit below. Kursk saw it first, with spiky joints and a face that looked vaguely, but disturbingly, humanoid. He swiftly drew his spear, yelled “This one is mine!” and leapt from the catwalk onto the beast. A gusher of ichor spilled out of it, and the inhuman screams echoed in the barn. It tried to grab Krusk in its mandibles, but he would have none of that. With a hearty jerk, the spear ripped a hole in it and it slumped over.

Julie attended the rangers and was able perform magical healing to bring them back from the brink.

There were three of them. Their leader was Jakardros Sovark, a weathered old ranger, missing one eye, whose face is as hard as leather. The fire pelt cougar immediately started purring and rubbing up against him. Then there was Vale Temros, a dark-skinned man with piercing eyes. A towering height of 6-1/2 feet and muscular build belie his quiet and withdrawn nature. Finally there was Kaven Windstrike, a handsome young man with dark hair and emerald eyes.

Jakardros’s patrol had been delayed returning to Fort Rannick. Upon arriving back they found the fort under Kreeg control. He lost a third of his unit in an attempt to retake the fort, and when they were forced to flee south into Kreegwood, the remainder were easy targets for the Grauls. Since their capture, only these three remain; the others have already been taken away for torture and death at the Graul’s hands.

With freedom, other things come to mind. Vale has an oath of vengeance against the Kreegs. In fact it was the only thing holding him together over the days of torture and mind-numbing horror at the Graul’s hands. He proposes that Fort Rannick be retaken.

September 25 - 26 [AS, JK, JS, MA, TB (2015-1-25)]

• Heal up the Rangers.
• Go to the Fort and observe that there are ogres in it.
• Using Obscuring Mist they sneak into the secret tunnels behind the waterfall
• Julie scouts and finds a tower is unstable and ogres are living in dangerous barracks.
• Plan a big attack.
• Julie lights the barracks on fire and Krusk attacks the tower, destroying it.
• Fight ogres.
• Break down the door to the keep.
• Krusk notices that Kaven has a Sihedron tattoo.
• Krusk starts to loudly interrogate Kaven. Other rangers are confused.
• Two ogres come out to investigate the commotion.

September 26 [AS, JK, MA, TB (2015-3-1)]

• One ogre hits Krusk badly and she drops Kaven. He takes the opportunity to flee from Krusk into the keep.
• Search through the keep, finding scenes of carnage.
• Take a horsey-mask that some ogres were fighting over
• In the underground, they discover an opulent boudoir. There is evidence of Kaven meeting with a snake woman. They appear to have magically escaped.
• There is a a list of names, including Kaven's, which is circled. The list is titled: "Those who have agreed to grant their greed to the master's need".
• In the upper parts there is a climatic battle with Jaagrath Kreeg, the patriarch of the Kreegs.
• Other ogres come to aid Jaagrath, but eventually they are all taken down.

September 26 - 28 [AS, JK, MA, TB (2015-3-15)]

• Search remains of the fort. Discover the commander Lamatar has a nymph girlfriend in Whitewillow. He might still be alive.
• Rest for the rest of the day
• Go to Turtleback Ferry. Notice that the river is higher.
• Discover Turtleback Ferry being flooded out.
• Prevent large nightbelly boa from eating the school children
• Then discover the legendary monster Black Magga trying to destroy the church and all that is within it.
• Drive Black Magga off. (Actually it gor bored and wandered off.)
• Spend the rest of day helping town recover.
• Krusk discovers a sihedron rune on someone and pumps them for information; they got it from the Paradise gambling boat
• Doctor Archibald finds similar information
• Leave the next day to see what is the situation with Skull Crossing, the dam that prevents flooding. It is the domain of the Skulltaker Trolls
• Battle past an Ettin who screams "You no bribe me! I smash you for Skulltakers!"
• Kill an ogre demolition team.

September 28 [AS, JK, MA, TB (2015-3-29)]

• Battle trolls in the building on top of the dam.
• Skull motif is everywhere.
• Doors to the stairs down has graffiti written in Giant: "BELOW DWELLS WET PAPA GRAZUUL! ALL HAIL WET PAPA GRAZUUL!"
• Descend stairs to bottom.
• Find a pool of water with a Scrag in it, wielding an adamantium trident. Defeat him, but have to use potion of water breathing to recover the weapon.
• Discover two underwater tunnels to other pools.
• West one has a pool with an underwater secret passage that ends in a door with a hatch. Decide to save that for later.
• Circe, while waiting, clears a pile of skulls from the southern door.
• East tunnel ends in a room with a scale model of the dam. And a horrible construct.
• Party split up to do searching which gives an advantage to the construct.
• It nearly takes off Julie's head before being defeated.

September 28 - October 2 [AS, JK, MA, TB (2015-4-12)]

• Investigate model of dam. Find Ioun stone and discover these are the controls for the dam. It is just missing a power source.
• Behind southern door are two magic circles, one holding ash, the other a dying devil.
• Devil is revealed to be part of the power source. Hellhound is summoned to complete the circuit. Devil disintegrates to ash and floodgates open.
• Return to Turtleback. Receive pie from teacher. Rest for a day. Krusk stoically watches the water.
• Go to Shimmerglens by rowboat to try and find Lamatar, the missing commander.
• In the Whitewillow area, encounter Yap who wants help for his mistress, Myriana.
• The Whitewillow is haunted by death.
• Circe investigates a mysterious ocean ship, "The Shameful Barnacle". Find's the corpse of the captain and takes sheet music and mysterious charts.
• Meet the ghost of Myriana. Her visage is blinding for Krusk, Dynith and Julie. She knows Lamatar was taken by Ogres. He is now dead and wants his body returned. Group agrees and gets out of there.
• Recuperate back in Turtleback. The three rangers come down and want in on the assault of Hook mountain.
• Go to Fort Rannick for supplies.
• Find a trail that the ogres use to climb up to Hook Mountain.
• Kill the ogres guarding the entrance.
• When a magic amulet is taken from an ancient corpse, it collapses to dust and its armour makes a loud noise.
• Two ogres and a giant investigate. Dynith prevents them from alerting the rest of the mountain by creating a wall of ice

October 2 [AS, JK, JS, MA, TB (2015-5-3)]

• Julie scouts several rooms. Find a trio of Annis hags, an empty shrine and a stone giant.
• Party attacks the hags and kills them all.
• Go to attack the stone giant. Find the leader stone giant there.
• Big battle that includes Lucrecia and Kaven.
• The leader falls, but Lucrecia heals him up. She is understandably upset when he immediately surrenders.
• Barl Breakboones is captured.
• Barl reveals there is an army of stone giants marching on L'Trel.

October 3 - 6 [AS, JK, MA, TB (2015-5-17)]

• Jakardros kills Barl.
• Kill remaining ogres.
• Investigate shrine where Lamater is supposedly. Find him.
• Kill the frost wight that is Lamater.
• Next day, travel with body down Hook Mountain.
• Stop off at Fort Rannick for supplies.
• Go to Shimmerglens.
• Myrianana reincarnates Lamater with her love. She fades away. He comes back as a Nymph.
• She will now remain away from civilization in penance for his failure.
• Back to Turtleback Ferry.
• On October 4, use Phantom Steeds to travel to Ilsurian. Then start heading back to L'Trel.
• Two days out, encounter hostile stone giants. They are carrying an ordinary looking rock as if it is of great importance.

October 6 - 7 [AS, JK, MA, TB (2015-5-31)]

• Take shelter in old wayhouse.
• While resting, everyone is shifted to another place and attacked by goblins.
• Defeat goblins and figure out everyone has shrunk to 1 1/2"
• Interrogate the leader. Let him go to return to the rafters with the rest of his tribe.
• Camp the night on the floor.
• In the morning, crawl under the door into the garden.
• While surveying from a step, a weasel snatches Julie and scurries away with her.
• Weasel is pursued, but the buffetting winds toss Circe some distance away.
• Weasel is killed and a good stash is found beneath the step.
• Find a crude map of the wayhouse on the remains of a witch.
• Trek across the path.
• Attacked by a (giant) bird. Circe turns it into a giant moth.
• Discover a tiny path through a blackberry bush. Follow it.

October 7 [AS, JK, MA, TB (2015-6-13)]

• Ambushed in the blackberry patch. Kill everyone but Rogan Green.
• Hear about "The Cat" who controls the blackberry bushes and the stables.
• Head towards the shrine.
• Encounter ant swarms. Avoided.
• At the shrine, some gnolls are harassing a man who has climbed the statue of Sivis.
• Gnolls are killed. Man is Marlowe, a travelling priest who has been here for 18 years.
• Learn that "The Cat" is human. Put clues together and figure he is Chadranther.
• Head towards halfling tree, where there may be safe haven.
• Attacked by beetle along the way.
• See smoke in the distance.

October 7 - 8 [AS, JK, MA, TB (2015-7-26)]

• Approach halfling tree. Discover short people outside.
• They are gnomes and they attack the party, using a yellow powder that explodes.
• Go into the warrens.
• Gnomes in the room attack but Krusk slaughters a lot of them. The rest flee, but one is captured.
• A barrel of the exploding yellow powder is found.
• Under questioning, it is revealed that the gnomes are attempting a takeover of the halfling warrens.
• Other gnomes are attempting to knock down support beams.
• Quick assault to prevent destruction.
• Large cauldron is used as a trap and rolls over, blocking the passage. Dynith gets stuck.
• One gnome is in charge and is throwing hot coals at the party with his bare hands.
• He is captured and threatened, but does not crumble. He is thrown in a pit with centipedes and an exploding barrel is dropped on him.
• Find a drunk gnome who was holed up in the trophy room.
• Find the halflings and peaceful contact is made.
• Discover that the chief gnome is fireproof and he has gotten away.
• The dying sheriff of the halfling asks the group to take care of his people.
• Shelter for the night.
• Next day, Aubrey the travelling minstrel comes to the halfling warren. He carries a message from "The Cat". "What you are looking for is above Turtle Lake."
• Krusk stays behind to protect surviving halflings from random gnolls. Others go to the pond that is Turtle Lake.
• Use magic to transport themselves to the top tier of the fountain.
• One level below they find a giant sphere sunk into the water. It is artifact level of magic.

October 8 - 9 [AS, JK, JS, MA, TB (2015-8-16)]

• Decide to travel to Cat's
• Picked up Krusk, fended off gnoll attack.
• Continued on to Cat's domain.
• Hobgoblins enter. Secured horses and entered
• Fought deserters within stables
• Circe avoids toothpick from balista people.
• Convinced to let them in.
• Guy sleeping, as guard, was Orik Vancaskerin.
• Cat doesn't want to see them.
• Checked out bringing tower. It's a sword.
• Break orb after all day
• Julie grabs Ioun stone

October 9 - 13 [AS, JK, MA, TB (2015-10-4)]

• Everyone is suddenly big
• Gnolls attack, halflings defend.
• The Cat attempts to kill party with a lightning bolt.
• He is turned into an actual cat and escapes.
• Krusk, Julie, and Circe are given magical steeds by Dynith. They travel to L'trel to warn of imminent giant attack.
• Archibald and Dynith remain behind to help the tribe of halflings migrate to a safe home.
• The 10th and 11th are spent using magical steeds to transport the halflings.
• On the 12th, they use magical steeds to get to L'trel.
• Giants attack on the dawn of the 13th.
• Circe buys tavern from owner at firesale.
• Small vanguard of three giants to the east are killed.

October 13 [AS, JK, MA, TB (2015-11-1)]

• A larger army of giants is approaching the eastern side from the north.
• A tentacled, fire breathing horror is flying in.
• Group ignores the army to rush to the main government building to try and stop the horror.
• The horrors spends a lot of time lighting things on fire and eating people before it is killed.
• Attack other giants trying to sneak into town. Get hit by thrown mailboxes.
• A horn is sounded near Old Light. Rush to investigate.
• An elite team of giants is leaving the ruins. Start fighting them.

October 13 [AS, JK, JS, MA, TB (2015-11-14)]

• Giant chief throws a brick at Julie, then realizes he shouldn't have done that.
• Circe picks up the brick and runs away with it.
• Krusk and Dynith get grappled by bears.
• Nualia appears. She is ordered by the giant to retrieve the brick.
• Dynith flees in gaseous form to a rooftop. Unfortunately Nualia flies over to join her. "I think my sword could fit in you."
• When Doctor Archibald hits her very hard with an arrow, she turns invisible.
• A bit later she drops next to Doctor Archibald and knocks him out.
• She turns to Circe. "I don't know you. Please give me the brick." Circe claims to only have a turtle.
• Dynith Dimension Door with Circe to far away. Circe taunts Nualia with the brick.
• Nualia also Dimension Door to right next to them. "I don't need that specific brick. Any will do. It would be easier if you just gave it to me."
• Dynith does another Dimension Door attempting to hide in a warehouse, but getting shunted outside.
• All the giants and their bears are down by this time.
• Nualia sighs, turns invisible and goes back into Old Light.
• The party heals as quickly as possible, but Nualia is gone by the time they get there.
• Tracking her, she appears to have walked out of the Old Light and mingled into the city.
• Army officer reports the giants fled after the horn was blown, but they have taken prisoners.
• A lone giant is captured and questioned.

October 13 - 19 [AS, JK, MA, TB (2015-11-22)]

• Interviewed captured giant
• Discover Mokmurian is assembling an army of giants past the Storval stairs.
• Circe buys a magic shop as well. Names it "Edgar Exotic Magic Emporium"
• Use magic horses to head where giants came from, the Storval Stairs
• Battle on the Storval Stairs with group of giants at the top
• Battle a stone giant patrol

October 21 [AS, JK, JS, MA, TB (2015-12-6)]

• Approached Jorgenfist and see army of giants camped around it.
• Spot watch tower. Spy on it then assault taking out leader and two giants with vacant expressions and runes of wrath tattooed into them.
• Dimension Door to the top of tower made of black stone.
• Discover harpies live up there who are skilled at martial arts. Fight them.
• Two rocs attack as well, but flee to its nest on the spire after one is baleful polymorphed
• Descend to bottom of tower. Attacked by giant and out-of-control mammoth
• Hide inside the black tower. It is cold inside. Giants don't follow.
• Circe descends down trap door to colder crypt.
• Floating mummy looks at her. It is carrying a large scroll case. She flies away. It floats after.
• Mummy uses martial arts and horrific abilities to beat up people.
• Eventually killed. Scroll case is ancient, but Julie opens it carefully. Inside is a library card, powerful scrolls and the Anathema Archive
• Descend to lower crypts and create magic house to rest in.

October 22 - 23 [AS, JK, JS, MA, TB (2016-1-17)]

• Rest in the crypt for two days to get back to fighting strength.
• Try and sneak out. Stone giant on watch alerts the guards.
• Party begins to slaughter the stone giants in the guard towers.
• Investigate an old temple and kill the two frost giants within
• In the feast hall a large bear is killed.
• Descend into the central pit.
• Confronted by dire bears.

October 23 [AS, JK, MA, TB (2016-1-31)]

• While fighting bears, another giant appears at the bottom of the pit and starts throwing rocks. After being hurt badly has turns gaseous and flees
• Attack a group of four guard giants
• A giant named Conna comes in peace
• Talk to her in haunted shrine. She wants the Mokmurian dead.
• Take safer route to Mokmurian with less horrors and lamias.
• Fight a kobold.
• Julie scouts a small tunnel alone and is nearly killed by small man with a scythe. He chases her out.
• Avoid vinegar smelling cave.
• Julie scouts tunnel with furs hanging along the walls. When she investigates a hole, she gets stabbed by someone behind it.
• Rest of party discusses best way to handle them.
• While waiting, lamias come and introduce themselves.
• During the battle one of the lamias is killed, the other stays away. Trolls hidden behind the walls are defeated too.

Conversation with Conna

"When Mokmurian returned from his exile he challenged my husband, his tribe father, Vandarrec to battle and defeated him. He seized control of the tribe and led them to the Valley of the Black Tower. He then brought my broken-spirited husband down to this shrine, where he murdered him before my eyes.

"His other minions avoid this cave because it is haunted by my husband’s spirit. He remains calm in my presence, so we can talk safely here.

"Whatever they are, slaying Mokmurian is the solution to your problems. He spends almost all his time in the deep caves below here.” She then proceeds to draw a rough map for the group. “It is better to approach from the west than the north–it may be farther but there are fewer perils. If you do encounter more stone giants, please try not to kill them. They are my kin, even if they have brought their doom upon themselves."

Before the group leave, she gives one last word of advice.

"I fear that Mokmurian has fallen under the influence of a powerful evil spirit indeed—one of the Ancient Lords themselves. I have heard him whisper a name when he felt he was alone, the name “Karzoug,” a name I recognize from secret myths shared by the elders. Karzoug was one of those who enslaved my people, and if Mokmurian has fallen victim to this Ancient Lord’s influence, the danger facing her people and all of Gradallia may be greater than anyone knows."

October 23 - 24 [AS, JK, MA, TB (2016-2-7)]

• Encounter large party of eight giants and a leader. During the battle the remaining lamia returns.
• Tough fight, with Krusk nearly killed. Ends with lamia turned to stone and crushed.
• Return to Conna for shelter, but turned away. Follow the suggestion of holing up in lamia lair.
• Find books underneath the altar.
• In the morning, descend to the lower level.
• Creature comes out of the wall and belches slag onto Dynith, Circe and Krusk while Julie and Archibald were investigating rubble. It goes into the wall again before much can happen.
• The next room demonstrates a magical trap that shrinks people when Dynith sends a summoned rast in.
• Circe confirms that it will keep affecting people when she walks in.
• Dimension door to the other side.

October 24 [AS, MA, TB (2016-2-21)]

• Encounter room with smoking cauldron that causes blindness in Julie.
• Cauldron fire is put out.
• Entering room reveals a stone golem. After it falls, the wall creature appears again but is quickly destroyed.
• The next room is full of giant zombies, including a headless one.
• Dynith explores part of the complex with his Arcane Eye
• Investigate shining door, but no easy way to open it is found.
• Another passage is blocked by a magical wall of stone.
• Go through to only option, a room with all angles smoothed.

October 24 [AS, JK, MA, TB (2016-3-13)]

• Enter the room, attacked by outer planar hounds with eyes that hurt
• Beyond is large room shrouded in fog.
• Start getting attempts to disintegrate people shooting through the fog
• Doctor Archibald flies above and fights Mokmurian.
• Mokmurian casts spells and then flees with a dimension door
• Search room. Find notes about attack on L'Trel.
• Investigate a bronze door. When trying to open, it glows.

October 24 - 26 [AS, JK, MA, TB (2016-4-3)]

• A glowing creature comes out, starts screaming at people, and blasting them with fire
• It is destroyed.
• An attempt to break down to door causes another one to come out. It is also destroyed.
• Julie is able to open the door, at about the same time a large number of creatures are approaching
• Hide in the library.
• Find a clockwork librarian that Julie initially thinks is challenging her to ritual combat.
• Giants open the door and start pouring in.
• Battle happens in the library.
• A rune covered giant that towers over the others is turned into a sloth, and then Nualia appears and puts down Doctor Archibald. Krusk soon follows.
• Conna betrays Mokmurian and a civil war happens within the giants.
• Mokmurian tells Nualia to handle the rebels, and enters the library to deal with people personally.
• He is feebleminded
• Before dying he talks in the same speech as the illusion in Thistlepoint.
• Julie uses knowledge from monologue to research in the Thassilonian library.
• Others recover prisoners from the dungeon, including Circe's bartender.

Mokmurian's Death Speech

So these are the heroes of the age. More like gasping worms to me—worms to be crushed back into the earth when I awaken the armies of Xin-Shalast, when the name Karzoug is again spoken with fear and awe. Know that the deaths of those marked by the Sihedron—the giants you have so conveniently slain for me—hasten my return, just as yours soon will. Fools, all of you. is this all you could manage in ten thousand years?

October 28 - November 6 [AS, JK, MA, TB (2016-4-17)]

• Continue research in the library.
• Circe learns Thassilon
• Travel via Phantom Steed back to L'Trel
• Welcomed home
• Learn there is an ominous sinkhole that opened up at about the same time Mokmurian died.
• Nolan's squad had been sent in and hadn't been heard from since.
• Spend next morning gearing up.
• Circe get's Jerome to sell equipment to Doc.
• Sinkhole leads into the old Catacombs of Wrath
• Follow Nolan's trail to previously caved-in stairwell.
• Lower level is foggy and confusing.
• Find stanza to poem about Runeforge on the wall.
• Hidden voice asks about fate of Thassilon and current military strenghts.
• After several rounds of questioning, voice decides he has learned enough.

November 6 [AS, JS, MA, TB (2016-5-8)]

• Battle large demon and the Scribbler
• Scribbler flees
• Demon killed with lucky shot from Doctor Archibald
• Go further into the catacombs
• Encounter demon dogs whose howls scare off everyone but Doctor Archibald and Circe
• The remaining two slay the hounds.
• Dynith and Krusk successfully flee the dungeon
• Julie huddles in a forgotten corner until the Scribbler comes for her.
• He attacks her, but she escapes out of the dungeon.

November 6 [AS, JK, JS, MA, TB (2016-5-15)]

• Scribbler attacks Archibald and Circe before disappearing.
• Everyone is collected and together they delve further into the dungeon.
• Find Nolan chained to the wall in a square room
• When Krusk enters to slap Nolan, becomes magically convinced that everyone else is going to try and sacrifice him to Molag Bel. Starts to attack his friends to get away.
• Nolan laughs and disappears to appear behind Julie
• Scribbler spends time using dimension door to attack from different places.
• Circe makes Krusk fall asleep.
• Eventually Julie steals his falchion and won't give it back.
• A fireball wakes Krusk back up and does nothing to the Scribbler.
• Krusk breaks free from his friends and starts trying to get away.
• The Scribbler tries to kill Krusk, but it backfires and he is instead dropped by him.
• Doctor Archibald finishes The Scribbler.
• Investigating the rest of the complex finds Nolan's corpse.
• Find information about the Runeforge and Runeforged weapons.
• Leave through the sinkhole. Crowd is waiting to see what happens.
• Krusk stalks a "person" who looks undead, but he disappears in the crowd.
• Report to Tarran.
• Brodert Quink desperately wants to go to the Thassilonian library.
• Circe checks on businesses.
• Apparently weirder people are starting to move into the Burnout district.
• A backroom poker game involves a large spider.
• Researching the poem learns clues that indicate Runeforge might be at Lake Stormunder.

November 6 - March 5th [AS, JK, MA, TB (2016-5-29)]

• Lavon wants Julie to join him on expedition to Sinaga to invesigate her state and estate.
• Doctor Archibald helps his family through crisis
• Baron X'Celsiah asks for help guarding her against unpredictable mercenaries in town.
• Nothing bad happens, and mercenaries are given mission far away.
• Leave for Runeforge atop Phantasmal Mounts
• Solve puzzle in the Sihedron circle, getting seven keys.
• Climb mountain staircase to cave. Attacked by earth elementals.
• Avoid ice trap and go into deep cave.
• There is a sleeping dragon. Avoided.
• The keys are used, but they are noisy. Dragon starts waking as gate opens.
• Dragon gets eye of Circe before everyone is through the portal.

March 5th [AS, JK, JS, MA, TB (2016-6-19)]

• Explored Envy section
• Find disenchantment explosion happening regularly. Decide to avoid.
• Continue to Lust
• Mocked and attacked by demonic women, one is killed while the others flee.
• Talk to caged person. Really old. Slightly crazy.
• Get past stone giant bouncers to see Delvahine, succubus in control of the Lust section.
• Leave her in peace.
• Investigate Pride.
• Turning a corner, Julie is duplicated twice by magical mirrors. The duplicates are defeated.
• Circe is duplicated. She is similarly defeated.

March 5 - 7th [AS, MA, TB (2016-7-31)]

• Julie is stripped of all weapons and goes into the trap again
• She gets duplicated but goes on to destroy the mirrors.
• The duplicates shatter into glass.
• The room beyond is a huge mirrored chamber with a gigantic peacock in the middle.
• The peacock is determined to be an illusion by everyone but Doctor Archibald.
• Chorus of voices announce "The master is in study—he is not to be disturbed. Please keep your screaming to a minimum while you are punished for daring to venture this close to his magnificence."
• Many hostile spells are cast at the party from invisible foes.
• Dynith is able to use see invisibility to spot the six wizards, all looking identical.
• Party decides to flee, but not before Circe is feebleminded and Krusk is killed by a phantasmal killer of Nolan.
• Dynith uses a Limited Wish from a scroll to recover Circe. Then a ressurection scroll is used to bring Krusk back.
• A return to the room is done, with a Dimension Door and invisibility to destroy all the wizards very quickly. They all turn into snow after death.
• Dynith breaks several mirrors with poor scorching ray shots
• Doctor Archibald attacks the giant peacock several times before realizing it is not real.
• Find a secret door and find a study beyond.
• Inside is a corpse identical to the other wizards, holding a mirror.
• Find journal in Thassilon.
• In other rooms, there are stacks of identical naked corpses stacked like cordwood.
• The library is completely burned, except for one book that Dynith finds useful.
• In the bedchamber there are six copies of Delvahine. They start screaming, so the door is closed on them.
• Go back to the study, and go through books.
• Circe finds valuable information in the journal.
• Rest of the books detail information about an improved clone spell that would allow infinite life.

March 7th [AS, JS, MA, TB (2016-8-21)]

• Enter Wrath.
• Battle iron golem archer.
• Find teleportation circles that are used to travel throughout Wrath complex.
• Next section has six wizards training with six sinspawn.
• Many fireballs are tossed about before they are defeated.
• Next teleporation circle takes them to large room with smoke over entryway.
• Use magic to scry the next area. Scrying device is destroyed by angry looking woman.
• Try to dimension door to her. Party is immediately attacked by her and a large demon.
• A Reverse Gravity throws people into a Wall of Fire on the ceiling.

March 7 - 8th [AS, JK, JS, MA, TB (2016-8-28)]

• Angry lady covers herself in blue flames and hacks at Krusk.
• Continue battle. Two other demons engage.
• Feeblemind the angry lady. She continues to be stabby.
• Krusk kills the large demon quickly.
• Angry lady grapples Krusk and attempts to have her way with him.
• Other demons are killed.
• Angry lady is killed. Tattoo on her face transfers to Krusk.
• Rest
• More wizards come and attack party. They are killed.
• Head towards Greed.

March 8th [AS, MA, TB (2016-10-8)]

• Decide to investigate Envy first
• Find evil ooze that takes issue with being disturbed.
• Doctor Archibald get the impression it is an outsider.
• Discover pool of Ethillion
• Go on to investigate Greed. Stopped by a door

March 8th [AS, MA, TB (2016-10-30)]

• Discover the door is a trap, find a secret door to use instead.
• Blocked by a veil of magical fog.
• Use Dimension Door to get past it.
• There is a pool of water inhabited by water mephits. They are insulting and ignored.
• Continue down a hall, and find another pool.
• The statue on the pool is a stone golem that attacks.
• More stone golems arrive and are dispatched.
• Mephits get annoyed and start hurling acid.

March 8th - 17th [AS, JK, JS, MA, TB (2016-11-13)]

• Water mephits flee after being attacked
• Search complex, finding room made for magically fabricating nice furnishing.
• Attacked by a silver man.
• Before being Feebleminded and destroyed, he manages to turn Julie to stone, banish Krusk from the Runeforge, and turn Dynith into a bat.
• Return to Wrath to use the "Master Circle" and the Cloak of the Monteback to open a portal to Kire. Find Krusk there.
• Circe stays behind to regularly open the portal, and read books.
• Doctor Archibald, and Krusk travel for three days to Brinewall to get magical help.
• They succeed in purchasing a scroll of Dispel Magic for Circe to use.
• Spend three days traveling back to the Runeforge and then entering again via Circe.
• Circe successfully dispels the magic keeping Dynith a bat.
• Dynith casts Break Enchantment to turn Julie back to flesh.
• Go back to Greed
• Find a library of information
• Meet a demon that wants to bargain for freedom. Dynith is receptive but Doc kills it.
• Deepest room has a pool of elemental arcana that can be used to charge wands.
• Julie experiments at distance until one of the wands backfires.
• Spend the rest of the day reading the library
• Go to investigate Sloth, but get discouraged after seeing it looks like sewers.
• Go to Gluttony.
• Mummies attack, mostly ignoring Julie.
• Find huge crypt with bas-reliefs of ancient Thassilonian families.

March 17th [AS, JS, MA, TB (2016-11-20)]

• Behind a door, find a portal to the negative elemental plane.
• Attacked by dread zombie that tries to grapple Doctor Archibald, but flees by clinging to the underside of the bridge
• Investigate another room and Krusk is attacked by a clay golem.
• Loot the gems and old wine, but leave the gold sarcophagus alone
• Find labs and libraries
• Julie finds mummies, but they do not attack her.
• A Flaming Sphere is used to flush them out and Krusk takes them out.
• Search and find a secret room.
• While this is happening, the dread zombie stabs Dynith and then runs away.
• Everyone pursues it as it goes to the negative elemental plane portal room.

March 17 - 18th [JS, MA, TB (2016-12-4)]

• The dread zombie holds up in the room with a portal to the negative elemental plane.
• Julie closes the door on it, and Dynith places a wall of iron to block it in.
• Immediately after wraiths start passing through the walls and attacking.
• After killing many a general retreat is called. Krusk is badly hurt before he can get away.
• Decide to investigate the Runeforge pool.
• Place mirrors from the Shimmering Veils within
• A bit happens, but not enough.
• Theorize that the other component needed would be a toy from Delvahine.
• Go back to the Iron Cages and make their presence known.
• The three Alu-demons goad the party again.
• Doctor Archibald convinces them to let him parley with Delvahine, who grants them access when they name drop Vraxeris
• Within her pavillion, she is annoyed with the group.
• Eventually Doctor Archibald mentions that there were clones of her made by Vraxeris.
• Delvahine storms out.
• Doctor Archibald distracts the Alu-demons with stories while Julie sneaks into boudoir. The demons don't seem very smart.
• She avoids being seen by the shining children within and absconds with sex toys.
• They all leave quickly with a dimension door to the runeforge pool.
• There are ugly sounds coming from the Shimmering Veils
• They place the toys and the mirrors in the pool.
• The pool glows and the mists start reaching for the weapons.
• Archibald places his bow in the pool. Thassilonian runes etch themselves into the bow and it becomes a Dominant weapon.
• A golden light bursts from the pool and baths the statue of Karzoug.
• It comes alive and speaks "You. Again. I can't help but be inspired by your optimism, but alas, your weapons will never reach Xin-Shalast. Your fate is death, here in Runeforge."

March 18 - 22nd [AS, JS, MA, TB (2016-12-11)]

• Battle statue of Karzoug.
• During battle, dread zombie bursts out and attacks.
• Delvahine causes trouble as well. She Charms Dynith and takes him away.
• Statue monologues upon destruction: "This... this is not the last... come then, heroes. Seek me atop Mhar Massif, if you value life so poorly. Your weapons will be useless now that I know your greatest weakness. You should be honoured to be the first fools executed under the banner of Shalast in then thousand..."
• Doctor Archibald charges down the corridor to rescue Dynith
• Attacks and kills Delvahine
• Alu-fiends flee
• People decide they have had enough of this place and go back to L'Trel

March 13 - April 4th [AS, JS, MA, TB (2017-1-15)]

• Research location of Mhar Massif
• Discover Vekker brothers claimed to have found the location but disappeared 80 years ago.
• Last know location was along the Kazaron river
• Use Phantasmal steeds to journey to the river
• Discover abandoned cabin
• Hear outsider howl/shriek in the distance
• Attacked by undead tree
• Enter cabin and explore
• Discover cabin is haunted by the ghosts of dwarves
• Confirm that it is the Vekker's place.
• Snowstorm hits
• Discover remains of journal with the last pages ripped out
• Horrible haunting shakes the house and staving dwarven ghosts attempt to eat party
• Flee outside but it doesn't stop the haunting.
• Suddenly it ends.
• Spirit of Silas Vekker appears to make a plea
• Krusk had a miserable night

Silas Vekker manifestation

You... you are alive? You do not hunger? Ah... that is what I sense in your blood. Greed. You seek the City of Greed. You should abandon your quest, lest you end up like me. Cold. Dead. Eaten. But I suspect you cannot be swayed. Know then that I know the way to Xin-Shalast. I can show you the way, but only if you bring me my brother. He died on a ledge high above our final mine. I can feel his soul out there, still hungry, still insane. Bring his bones to me so that I might reconcile with him. Once he is at rest, I will show you the way so that I might rest as well...

April 5th - 6th [AS, MA, TB (2017-2-5)]

• Travel up ledge to Karivek body.
• Attacked by ice worm
• Attacked by Karivek's ghost.
• Find body that looks like it was dropped from a great height
• Hear supernatural howl that causes people to become shaken. Blizzard starts.
• Recognized as a Wendigo
• Create a Tiny Hut to shelter from enemy and storm
• Wendigo proceeds to do hit-and-run tactics against the party.
• Tries to toss Julie off a cliff
• Eventually use a Rope Trick to get some rest
• Use Dimension Door several times to get back to the cabin
• Ghosts start reconciling when the wendigo starts attacking the cabin

Vekker Brothers' Journal

The ledger contains several detailed maps of the regions the brothers were mining, and locates all of their assay points and mines. Notes on the payouts of each mine are listed—it appears that all of them have played out without imparting any particularly rich lodes; They knew their placer mine would soon play out, so they scouted deeper into the surrounding mountains, searching for new deposits for mining. Then several pages near the end have been torn out.

The recovered pages gives further details of how they accidentally discovered the headwaters of the River Avah. One must continue up the Kazaron River from the cabin until the second tributary. This is the legendary River Avah. The winding route is not for the faint of heart. There are no banks to walk along and the river itself often rises in cataracts of up to 300 feet in height as it climbs ever higher into the mountains. The waters of the River Avah are freezing cold, yet they themselves never freeze.

Eventually, one will reach a frozen swampland shrouded in glittering clouds of ice crystals known as the Fen of the Icemists. Here, you must fast and wait for a night of the full moon, whereupon the remainder of the route is made clear. The dwarves only explored the very edge of the city before they were forced to flee from a group of enraged giants. Yet the wealth they saw in the city...

April 6 - 10 [AS, CJ, MA, TB (2017-2-19)]

• Battle the Wendigo, defeating it.
• Ghost give missing journal pages.
• Blizzard passes.
• Follow instructions on Phantasmal Steeds to Fen of the Icemist
• Reality is weird
• Discover tower in the middle. Contains Azreil.
• Use magic tower to go to Major Port.
• Cure Krusk of Wendigo Psychosis. He no longer wants to eat people.
• Stock up on supplies
• Return to Fen.
• Meet Svevenka who was sisters with Myrianana. Thankful for the party putting her at peace.
• Forcefully break out of reality warping to follow path Xin-Shalast
• When the path starts to be paved, attacked by cloud and frost giants
• Arrive at Xin-Shalast.
• Dimension door past the guardian fortress

Svevenka's Warning

Svevenka, the nymph of the Fen of the Icemists, has information about Xin-Shalast. Giants, lamias and abominable snowmen dwell there. It also exists partially in Leng, which causes weird disruptions. Around the peak of Mhar Massif there is an occluding field. She suspects the denizens of Xin-Shalast created the field to protect it and that they must have some magical method of protecting themselves from the field, but these are merely guesses on her part.

There are also the descendants of the original citizens that still live in the city's ruins. There are two factions of these skulks—the relatively peaceful (and less powerful) "Spared" and the minions of the Hidden Beast, a horrific creature that dwells in the depths. She warns that it is best to seek out a member of the Spared for further information about the city, for few other factions within Xin-Shalast are likely to be as willing to help.

April 10 - 11 [AS, CJ, MA, TB (2017-2-26)]

• Went along the road as long as it was intact
• Avoid giant camp
• Had to go through old lava field and was attacked by tentacle stalagmite monster
• Find an immense domed building. Investigate
• In the middle is a pile of rubble with numerous caves.
• The occupants, 6 abominable snowmen, attack and are defeated.
• A large party of giants is observed returning to the camp.
• A Rope Trick is used to shelter for the night.
• In the middle of the night, more abominable snowmen arrive and investigate.
• After that, the party goes to a nearby abandoned house for shelter.
• In the morning, hide from the giants again.
• Approached by Morgiv, one of the Spared.
• The party match the prophesied saviours who will destroy the "Hidden Beast"
• Led to the underground chamber of the Hidden Beast.
• The skeletal figure demands "Which of you would offer your blood to me? Step forward and feel the embrace of your new lord!"

April 11 - 12 [AS, CJ, JS, MA, TB (2017-3-12)]

• Attack the skeleton.
• Minions come out of hiding and defend the master
• After the minions are destroyed they evaporate into a gas.
• The skeleton is discovered to be already dead.
• Using magic, discover the actual Hidden Beast is a horrible tentacle monster hiding invisibly on the ceiling.
• At one point it grabs Julie and starts sucking her blood.
• When hit enough, it evaporates into gas.
• Gas is followed under the throne.
• Slab is destroyed and monster is discovered hiding under there. It is killed again.
• Rest for the remainder of the day
• Next day continuing expedition through the city
• Avoid a pair of Rune Giants
• Attacked by a mound of flesh that sprays acid when hurt.

April 12 - 13 [CJ, MA, TB (2017-3-26)]

• Continue on
• Discover giant work crew.
• Hole up in a house until nightfall
• See a horror beast land in a building to the west
• Continue on the Golden Road
• Avoid Denizens of Leng
• Slow climb up Mhar
• Encounter huge spiders with odd numbers of legs.
• "Our enemies, those from Leng who play at aping your vexingly symmetrical appearances, have returned to this world to honor an ancient alliance with the recrudesent lord."
• They demand that the party destroy the denizens of Leng in the pinnacle above. They are bossy.
• They laugh when asked about a reward.
• Azreil agrees.
• As they continue on, Julie steals an ioun stone from one. This offends the spiders and they attack.
• Battle on the stairs
• Looted a house for spell components

April 13 - 14 [AS, CJ, MA, TB (2017-4-9)]

• Keep going up the stairs
• Ambushed by five frost giants. They do not survive.
• After wondering how they knew the group was coming, Julie starts saying things in Thassilonian. "It is amusing that you can come to center of my power and think I don't know your every thought and deed?"
• Arrive at the top of the stairs and enter the Occlusion field. Julie and Azreil have no problems entering. Others are affected by a pulse of the field that causes wracking, blinding pain. In addition, flashes of an alien world rip through the mind, leaving madness and fear in their wake.
• Figure out that the Sihedron ring and amulet are what is protecting Julie and Azreil.
• Discover that the amulet is also allowing Karzoug to experience everything that Julie does.
• Camp out to try and ambush someone else.
• See a horror beast pass into the Occuluding field with no issues.
• See a wizard fly through as well.
• Rest overnight.
• Descend back to the lower city on Phantasmal Steeds
• Look for Denizens of Leng to loot for Sihedrons.
• Head towards a temple. Encounter three Lamia Matriarchs that are killed.
• Determine that the temple is filled with Lamias.
• Hole up in a building, waiting for Denizens.
• See two. Kill them quickly.
• Find rubies but no Sihedrons.

April 14 [AS, CJ, MA, TB (2017-4-9)]

• Decide to fight the horror beast
• Wander the city
• Come across temple of the Sihedron. Investigate.
• Hidden in altar is a cache with a Sihedron amulet
• In the side chambers there is a collapse into darkness
• Feel like something is watching them
• Leave.
• Go to the horror beast's lair, the office of the tax collectors
• Try to sneak in through a side entrance
• Doctor Archibald opens a door to peak at the beast and instead gets blasted with lightning. His way is blocked by bars.
• Dynith tries to Dimension Door people into a safe zone.
• Horror Beast proceeds to land on everyone and squash them
• Doctor Archibald breaks through the bars to attack.
• Horror Beast is eventually killed.
• Immediately after, Gamigen, the ice devil shows up claiming he was hired to kill them.
• His bone devil minions do not help him much.
• After Gamigen is killed, search the bodies and find Sihedron Rings on both of them.
• Decide to return to Majuur Port to get supplies for the final assault.

April 14 [CJ, MA, TB (2017-5-14)]

• Summon Phantasmal Steeds to fly back to Svevenka and then Major Port
• While flying south, attacked by flying Lamia-kin
• Steeds are killed, people start falling
• Giants from the ground attack
• Long battle.

April 14 - April 23 [CJ, MA, TB (2017-5-28)]

• Return to teleporting tower and travel to Major Port
• Do shopping and constructions for a week.
• Return to Xin-Shalast. Use Phantasmal Steeds to fly to the Occluding field
• Investigate buildings.
• Find former horror beast lairs.
• Battle a golem in the ancient prison.
• Enter the Spire.
• Climb ramp to top.
• Battle cloud giant guards.
• Reinforcements come in mound-of-flesh moster and a rune giant.
• Dimension Door to lower part to regroup for a moment.

April 23 [CJ, MA, TB (2017-6-4)]

• Try to scan the former battle sight, but a wizard destroys the prying eyes.
• Climb back up
• Attacked by lamias, cloud giants, a rune giant, a hungerer, and the wizard.
• Wizard hides behind corner casting summoning spells.
• A Wall of Force divides the monsters up.
• After the Rune Giant is killed, two of the cloud giants abandon everything and run.
• All but the four lamias and the wizard remain after thirty seconds of fighting.

April 23 - 24 [CJ, MA, TB (2017-6-11)]

• Continue battle.
• Champion of Greed teleports in.
• More giants arrive, one of which will attempt to just flee from the pinnacle.
• Doctor Archibald uses bow and arrows to kill wizard
• Eventually all enemies are defeated.
• Hole up and recover overnight in a Magnificent Mansion
• Start exploring.
• Encounter projection of Karzoug that attempts to disintegrate Azreil. Leave it alone.
• Explore opulence.
• Find lamia and hungerer quarters.
• In the prison, fight an astradaemon. Discover Tim is being kept captive. He is no longer mythic.
• Encounter another projection of Karzoug, but it is destroyed when Doc hits it with his Dominant bow.
• In a hole punched through from the outside, there is a silent angel guarding it. To prevent hurting him, he is banished.
• A third projection turns Julie into stone, before it is destroyed too. Julie recovers.
• Discover door covered in weird writing. Avoid it.
• Go back to destroy the first Karzoug projection.

June 1

It has been some time now, since I left the life of a woodland warden behind me, and while my chosen career of physiological repair and maintenance has been a rewarding one, I find myself burdened with an itch for something more in present days. I've decided to keep this journal on hand, to catalogue my thoughts and experiences in the hopes that through it I shall discover what it is my life is lacking. My doctor thinks it's a good idea, and I trust his word, for he is I.

June 2

Note to self, acquire more leeches... I sense they shall soon be needed.

June 3

I should buy a boat

June 4

Oh woe is I. Cruel fate hast robbed me of my life's work. It seems the forecasts of the much needed rain were tragically off the mark as the city has only become hotter this day! Fire has engulfed our fair settlement, and my practice has become one of it's untimely casualties! To makes matters worse, it seems the blind now get credit for the hard work of valiant pony slayers! Well ok, I didn't actually slay the pony, I mean com'on.. it's just an animal gone astray in the confusion. But that blind kid that didn't even say thank-you for my leeches certainly didn't deserve all the credit for saving that poor halflings life...

Bah, I shouldn't be so petty... I'm just sore is all. And writhing in pain from the fall I experienced while rescuing another hapless innocent from the inferno. Actually, in spite of it all, this change of pace is quite nice apart from all the tragedy and doom. I wonder if the Army is recruiting...

June 5

I don't quite remember how I got here, or how I was stationed within the army as not a doctor, but here I am and ready to make a difference!

(Entry 2 some time later)

Today I learned that the army apparently fights loosing battles against rats, puts 16 year old girls in charge of alcohol stockpiles, and arms blind kids who steal credit with projectile weapons. I'm beginning to see why I was placed where I am.

June 10

Today I shouted aloud to a half-elven jewel thief that I was going to “teach you to be a child of two worlds”... I fear the army has made me racist.

June 11

The recently deceased have recently decided that being deceased no longer entails its usual parameters of being in the ground and remaining lifeless. This ceasing of deceased characteristics by the a fore mentioned recently deceased has caused our squad “Team Lightning”, as so named by the 16 year old girl quizzically serving with us, to be charged with investigating and ceasing of non deceased recently deceased.

If there's something strange in the neighbourhood, or something weird that don't look good, wasn't there someone else to call?

June 12

Too sick, write later...

June 13

Dead men might tell no tales, but apparently that's only because they're too busy digging holes. I have now come to suspect that L'Roi, our commander, is trying to arrange an untimely demise for our Sargent, Ricky, and by extension the rest of our team. It seems largely impractical to assign one squad of relatively inexperienced soldiers to root out a Ghoul infestation.. I mean seriously, they induce paralysis with a mere touch!

I fear this may be the last entry I make. If anyone should find this journal know that I, Doctor Archibald Olander, am not a racist.

June 14

I've somehow lived to see another horrible day. I'm also quite certain that I will never wash the pungent stench, of what will likely go down in history as the world's most corpulent living corpse, from my military issued tunic. I'm also left to call into question the sanity of my blind peer, who adorned himself in the ghoul's smelly cloak, assuming it to be magical.

Also; markings upon the gluttonous ghoul would seem to indicate that ancient horrors from beyond time are seeking to reclaim this world and plunge it into never-ending darkness.

I think I need a hot bath.

June 15

It seems it is customary for squad sergeants to greet one another with bladed objects to the face. Personally not the method I would have chosen, I'm quite happy with a simple handshake or nod “hello”.

If nothing else, this has lead me to hope that I shall never be promoted to a position where I might have to accept such a greeting.

June 16

Today the city came under siege by Goblins. It was refreshing to fight an army more inept than our own. Single minded corpses and rats were proving far too organized for us to fight effectively.

June 17

I have been promoted this day. Crap.

June 19

I have thus far proven successful at leading my squad into battle against corpses and being chastised by local entrepreneurs like our former leader, Ricky, before me. If all continues to go smoothly, I expect L'Roi to send us on another suicide mission shortly. It shouldn't be too hard for him to think of one, as several goblin tribes are outside the city, and at least one has declared war on us.

June 20

Following a lead given to us by what may as well have been a complete stranger, I have successfully lead my squad consisting of a 16 year old girl, a half-orc that abuses grieving widows, a possibly homicidal sorcerer, and a blind adolescent that I suspect is not emotionally stable, in a successful siege of the local glassworks. Among our adversaries were more goblins and another villainous half-elf.

I suspect my team does not believe that I attempted to take the half-elf alive.

L'Roi does not appear to be impressed by the number of corpses we deliver to his office, though he did seem to find the crazed writings of a mad man we discovered to be marginally interesting.

I fear the doom they hint at will give L'Roi an idea for our next suicide mission.

August 12

It's morning. I can hear the birds chirping outside my window for the first time in a long time. L'trel just hasn't been the same since the day of fire, but today... today feels like a new beginning.

I get out of bed an wash up. Today I have new post orders. Today I'm being assigned to be a new permanent member of squad 42 a.k.a “Team Lightning” as it has come to be known.

That name sounds ridiculous. Must be some kind of hero branding tactic by the PR branch.

They are heroes though. Saved the town from goblins, undead, and a demon too! I'm honoured to have been selected to serve with them. It seems they recently lost one of their members. A man, Marcus was his name. I hope I can live up to his example. No idea how he died though. The brass are keeping everything hush hush. I don't like it.

Shortly after I get into uniform I am approached by Captain Tarran.

“Captain Tarran!” I salute.

“At ease.” He says. “I want you to know that you were chosen from dozens of top candidates to fill the vacant slot on the .. team.. You've done us proud so far son, but I want to be sure you understand the risk. Team Ligh- Squad 42, undertakes our most dangerous missions regularly.. often without telling anyone.” He grumbled near the end. “Sir, I understand and accept, sir!”

“Very good. You will find your new squad at the Barracks, tent 12. Dismissed.”

He left then shaking his head. I think he may have mumbled something about “not looking forward to seeing the next corpse” but I couldn't tell for sure.

I arrived at the barracks grounds not long after. The various squads were busily preparing for a large offensive of some nature. When I reached tent twelve I was immediately greeted by a large Half-orc sharpening his sword outside the tent. He glanced up at me. I stepped back. He looked kinda hungry and I instantly got the notion that he thought I was someone else.

“Well?” He asked.

“Well what, sir?” I replied.

He scowled a bit and stood up. “Aren't you the runt I sent to get my breakfast? Where is it? I told you I needed to sharpen my sword.”

“Sir.. I..”

He began to growl a bit. I reached for my sword but in shaken state I only managed to grip a loose piece of my tunic instead. Just then a man emerged from the tent. He was wearing a patchy looking robe with a few ghoulish looking creatures adorning it. He looked at us and smiled a bit before correcting the Half-orc.

“No no no Krusk. This isn't private Melvin.”

“You sure? He kinda smells like him.. uriny and such.”

“Quite sure. I think this is our new Marcus.”

“Karn three?” He looked at me a moment then shrugged. “Fine. Melvin better get here soon though, or I'm eating your breakfast too.”

The other man sighed then told me “Doc isn't here right now. You should go in and wait... you aren't allergic to cats are you?”

“No.” I said. “Why is that..” He left before I could finish. I think he went to find Melvin.

I peered into the tent. It wasn't unlike the others on the grounds. A few chairs arranged around the table, battle plans strewn about it's surface. As I approached for a closer look I saw that the Map centred on the table was actually a map of L'trel. Drawn upon it were several tactical plans to storm a place within the city labelled “Rat alley”. There were also several frowny faces around it and a crude illustration of a cat.. girl?.. wearing a crown and carrying a bag full of swag running for the hills. My examination of the map was cut short when a homeless man in a black robe began to shout at me.

“BEWARE” he yelled “YOU HAVE FOUND YOURSELF IN THE MIDST OF THE DESTINY BROUGHT FORTH BY DARK TAPESTRY!! TO LOOK AWAY IS TO LOOK INTO THE ABYSS AND TO LOOK AT IT IS TO LOOK INTO AN ABYSS THAT IS A LITTLE CLEARER BUT NOT SO CLEAR THAT YOU CAN MAKE IT OUT, BECAUSE YOU ARE ONE WHO DOES NOT YET SEE!! BUT DO NOT FEAR, AS I HAVE COME TO SHEPHERD YOU INTO KNOWING THE UNKNOWABLE KNOWN OF THE UNKNOWN KNOWN!”

He continued to shout and make bizarre hand gestures at me as I slowly backed towards the exit.

“HI!” Said a voice from behind me. “Are you are new teammate?”

I turned suddenly to see my newest assailant, only to be greeted by the grinning face of some kind of cat girl... also she appeared to be holding my knapsack.

“You're going to like it here, I can tell!” She exclaimed, while looking through my belongings.

“I.. uhmm.. is this..?” I asked, taken aback by my recent experiences all the while the crazy man was still shouting.

“Oh Tim? Don't mind him. I'm Julie! Who are you?”

I don't think I answered. Julie went on to explain that “Tim” was a member of Team Lighting. I think the loss of his teammate must have broken him, because he eventually lost interest in shouting at me and began to talk with several persons I could not see, one of whom was “Marcus”.

After Julie had finished looking through my things she returned my bag, disappointed in what she had seen, and we were then joined by the robbed man from before, Dynith, and the Half-orc, Krusk. Following behind them was another man. Adorned in a fine Breastplate and hat, his cape flowing in an unseen wind, surely this was the heroic leader of this rag-tag team. I was inspired. Then a little let down when he tripped walking in. Picking himself up, he dusted off and greeted me.

“Ah hello there. You must be our newest recruit!”

“I a-”

“Splendid! I'm Doctor Archibald Olander. These, as I'm sure you know, are Krusk, Dynith, Julie, and so on”

Tim waved ecstatically.

“Now, I know we're big on introductions but we have a big day before us.. time to go!”

I'm not sure he knew my name at this point.

It was high noon when we arrived at the entrance to the alley. Four other squads were there to meet us. Doc was then approached by one of the squad leaders. The man greeted Doc warmly, then continued to review battle plans with him, all the while talking in third person. I think his name was Ricky. Our role seemed simple enough. Two squads would flank the Alley from the North and drive all the vermin they could into ours and Ricky's squads. Our job was to set up a killing field and crush as many of the rodents as we could before they could escape.

At the time I was flabbergasted that this offensive would need four squads, let alone a hero squad, to complete it. But as I sat there wondering I could see it. There was a sense of dread of what was to come in the eyes of Doc and Ricky, and I think Julie was already planning on a way to escape should things go badly.

It was quite at first. Then we heard them. The screams of the other two squads began to echo off the buildings, cut short by a gruesome gagging. Doc Gripped his Scythe tightly, and Ricky began to shake. Krusk then got impatient and began to walk up the Alley. Doc told him to “Stop”.

Krusk turned around and asked “Why? It's not like they're spiders or something.”

Then the ground shook. The Half-orc suddenly became alert and slowly turned to face the unseen onslaught. Then, as if from thin air, it appeared. A massive wave of rats poured on to the Alley Streets. Krusk tried to run, but immediately became enveloped by the swarm. Ricky shrieked, and Doc ordered us to “Fall back! Fall Back!!”

We ran. The wave of Vermin crushed down on us and all of Ricky's squad save for Ricky himself were caught under it. I remember seeing them, screaming in terror and agony as the rats gnawed through their flesh within seconds, and they disappeared beneath a mass of fur a skittering feet. Doc lead us around a corner and into an old but sturdy looking stone dwelling. Slamming the door behind us all I could hear was the sound of millions of tiny claws scratching along the outside of the door and walls.

Suddenly we heard a thump at the door. Then another. Then another one. They were getting harder and harder. Doc ordered us to back away a prepare for a fight. The door then burst, and dozens of rats began pouring in. We struck hard and fast over and over again, but the tide was only stemmed when the bleeding angry Half-orc closed the door behind him.

“I still think it's better then Spiders.” Krusk stated, as Tim began to cast spells of healing at him.

Two hours later; The sounds of skittering had yet to cease. Doc and Ricky were attempting to think of a way for us to escape while Julie rummaged through the hovel for something valuable or entertaining. Tim kept telling someone named “Karn” to stop laughing at him. It was then that we began to hear a cracking sound. The room went quiet. “KRRRRRRRCCCKKKCHH”. Doc told us to get to the door, but it was too late. The Roof collapsed and the room filled with thousands of vermin. Ricky let out a horrified shriek, as Krusk burst through the door. Doc ordered us to fall back, to take our chances outside, but it was too late for me. I began to sink into the hoard, my vision clouding under a sea of teeth and fur.

My name is Private James Anderson, and this is the story of how I died.

Tim: “I know! I was there!... This guy, always with the “This is how I died story”! Am I right or what?... Karn?”

June 4

Ohmygod.. like, worst. Day. Ever!

So, it was soooo hot, right, so I’m just minding my own biz, checkin’ out the shops when Boom! Mountain esplodes right on top of us. Stuff starts raining down, all fire and shit. So, like, the town’s on fire so I head to Mom’s shop, people runnin’ around all crazy, when I see these people pointing at some old granny in her house.

So, I like get in there, and that old bard dude follows me, and we rush upstairs, and I like totally save her, but she’s hurt, so we head for the doc’s. We get there and that place is on fire, but we find him climbing down after saving this chick and her baby. Then, there’s this totally creepy guy there who’s like, blind or something, and he’s talking about some halfling on a horse, or whatever. And there’s this totally cool cleric who just saved some old guy from a cart falling over, and she’s chillin’ and passin’ out the wicked heals!

So, I get back to the shop, and I can’t find Mom. Bodies everywhere. Totally freakin’ out now! So I head for the barracks and find my brother who’s like, join the army! Turns out those peeps I met joined, and they’re giving us food and weapons and really bad uniforms. Now we have to stop looters and put out fires.

I still haven’t found Mom or Dad.

June 4-5

Well, the army guys said we should check out the docks so we head there with some other guys. This guy, ensign or whatever, Ricky, thinks he can order me around! Pfft...

Anyway, we get there and this big ship is on fire and stuff, and this guy tells us there’s brandy on the ship that will esplode! Brandy! Big fire but we totally put it out, but people kept throwing water on me! What’s up with that!?

So I go down to... make sure the brandy is ok and... well.. it gets a bit hazy from there. I kinda remember talking to my brother, and he’s like, “Mom wouldn’t want you to act this way” and I’m like “well when we find her we’ll ask how she wants me to act!” Then he yelled at Ricky. Then we got food.

So I woke up today on the floor of the kitchen with a hangover and Ricky’s screaming about splitting up into teams. I grab creepy guy, who’s like mumbling about some dream he had, and the Doc, and Ricky called us something team, but I don’t remember, so we’re team Lighting now!

I’m heading for the shop an the other two are following me and then there’s this big rat! With a finger! EWwwww...

Anyway, the Doc tries to like, talk to it or something but it all hisses and bites him and then he chopped it in half! Then, out of nowhere, rats! Everywhere! Big, huge, mega rats! And swarms of little rats. Ewwwww.... Nasty!

We try an fight ‘em off, but they’re all over us and biting, so we ran! Then we find team Annoying and the cute new cleric heals us all up and we go back. More RATS!! EWWWwwww...

But we totally kill them. But none of us are feeling well after that. I’m all itchy.

June 5-10

Hahaha... so that dumbass Ricky got in mega trouble ‘cause we were out killing rats when we’re suppose to be putting out fires. So they took the wizard away and now we have this giant half-orc dude named Krusk whose taller than that tree I climbed up when the wolves were chasin’ me.

Anywhose, we’re off to fight fires. Fire is hot and my dumb uniform caught on fire so I had to dump water on myself this time. Then, we’re in this burning house and the floor like totally collapses and I fall through. I land on my feet... like a boss!

Okay, so, now we’re all like, sick from the rat bites and the Doc is trying to help us. I’m ok, a bit dizzy and stuff. Felicia and Karn are really messed up though, so we spend a couple days in recovery. The fires are pretty much out and it’s getting cooler, finally. Daneth is all worried about me and says I should talk about Mom and Dad. I just wanna get out there and kill something!

Ugh... so these ghouls are on the street eating someone. Ugh. So I got all stabby and Krusk got all bashy! They musta left the cemetery ‘cause of all the bodies. I wonder if we’ll see more of them. I hope so ‘cause they had some jewelry on them! Pretty!

So then Karn is all like, “I hear something in that jewelry store.” And Ricky’s all like “It’s nothing.” and I’m all like, “no we should check this out.”

So I valiantly head around to the back to cut off the robbers, but the doc follows me and I’m like “shhhh...”

The others are messing around in the front so I go to unlock the back door and just as I get the lock the door swings open and this dude rushes forward and jumps over me. The second dude, though, tries to get past me and I totally stop him and I’m all like “can’t push over a little girl, huh!?”

Then I’m like “meet my daggers, bastard!” And then I totally stab him.

Then big Krusk bashes his head in from behind. Doc caught the other guy, while the rest of the squad gots the two in front. Karn’s all like “I removed those guys from existence,” and I’m like “pfftt... whatever.”

Then Ricky says we should take them in, so I guess we got a reward from it. Now Ricky feels sick from the ghoul bites. I left the room when the Doc started pulling out the leeches.

June 10-11

Ricky’s sick... Again! But he still wanted us on patrol. We hear there are fires being started so we go to the clock tower to see if we can can see them. Me and the Doc climbed up but all we could see was darkness. Karn was all like, ooh... clock. What’s up with that!?

So we’re patroling past Old Light and we stop this old dude who thinks there’s something going on there. Ricky starts freaking but Doc’s all cool, so we go check it out. I carved my name in the stone while everyone looks around. We don’t see nothing, but then we hear something on the beach near the garbage pile. Turns out some freaky Goblins are down there picking garbage and Doc scares them away by throwing his torch down. It was a boring night, and I wanted to stab things.

The next morning started off good... we were all thanked for saving the jewelry store, but one of the robbers got away. Then I found a ring in my pack! Pretty! But then there’s this freaky old guy screaming about ghouls on the streets. Ricky leads us to the graveyard where the caretaker talks about ghouls so we decide to take ‘em on!

Karn starts shooting blindly at them! Like really, blind... he’s blind. Krusk gets all bashy again, and I rush in to help. But then this other ghoul comes rushing at me!

When I wake up I’m on the ground with Felicia standing over me and ghouls everywhere! Not exactly a dream date. But I get up and start slashing and stabbing. Eventually we get them all down, but we’re hurtin’. Doc or someone finds a hole near the gazebo where the ghouls have been coming from. I guess we’ll have to figure that one out tomorrow. I feel stronger!

June 12

So now Krusk is all like, blah... We gotta stop fighting all these ghouls and rats!

Anywhose, we report in about all the ghouls and the hole under the gazebo and we’re told we hafta check it out, so we go back to the graveyard with another squad to keep an eye out.

We get down into these winding caverns, right, and first thing we run into: more bloody rats! But we took care of those ones pretty fast. We keep wandering through the caves when the Doc and Ricky fall into a pit full of spikes, so we get them out and they tell me to lead while looking for more traps! I can totally do that!

Then we hear something up ahead. Some peeps are buried beneath tombstones so we get them out but there’s a ghoul beneath one so I totally cut his arm off, right! But he’s hollerin’ so more come, and a really smelly ghast!

So we’re fightin’ those ones, and one falls into a pit full of snakes which come out an’ they swarm all over me! Ewwww!

But now we’ve saved some people and we’re gonna head back out with ‘em. I hope...

June 13 [AS, JK, JS, MA, TB (2013-2-3)]

These bloody ghouls are everywhere! Ugh! One even tried to take Ricky. But we gots the people out and the other team lost two people including that nice cleric.

Then LeRoy is all like, you gotta kill those ghouls, and we’re like, we’re gonna, duh! Douche...

So the next night we go back in the hole and we’re wandering for hours. But then we totally find the right tunnel! Then there’s this room up ahead with more undead, so I sneak in and there’s this dude, like, eating people and it was the grossest thing Ever!

I sneak back in, and Krusk charges in, so I remember trying to help him an’ I don’t remember much else... Bastard undead

June 14-15 [AS, JK, JS, MA, TB (2013-3-17)]

So I woke up with Felicia standing over me. She’s been a lot cuter and more vocal lately! Anyway, the mean ghast ran away but we’re stuck sleeping in the most disgusting room I’ve ever slept in... and there have been a few... not that I should talk about that now.

A couple ghouls tried to break in while we slept, but they were easy kills. Then we got up and headed out and there’s the mean ghast... again! He’s above the pit taunting us, so big Krusk tries to get him down but is paralyzed. So we climb up there and the Doc slices and dices. Then the idiot jumps down, and Felicia bashes him. Then, with a heroic leap, I nimbly jump down and kill him with one slash of my rapier. GO TEAM LIGHTNING! WOO!

Anywhose, we go back through the tunnels again trying to find our way out. It’s so disgusting down there and we keep running into more ghouls, but we totally get out. Ricky and the others report in to the army guy as well as the church. The church peeps are awesome and cure us all of the diseases! I fixed up big Krusk’s weapon so he’s good to go!

June 15-16 [AS, JK, JS, MA, TB (2013-5-5)]

So the 15th was a crap day. I finally get a chance to grab some parts for the hand crossbow when these meanies from shit-squad corner me and try to take my stuff! I think they grabbed some jewelry I had. Anyway I got Ricky to try to find them, an’ he’s talking to them, right? And suddenly that Nolan guy just attacks Ricky! We tried to help him but the whole squad attacked us so we’re like, “we’re gonna report you!” But I don’t think L’Roi believed us.

The next day we’re told to protect the theatre. Apparently that’s where all the army’s food is. So we goes there and it’s totally boring until all these peeps show up demanding food. Karn and Felicia managed to calm them down when all of a sudden, like, Boom! These goblins show up and start wrecking the place!

So yeah, like, goblins everywhere! They’re pretty easy to take care of, but there are so many of them that we spend the whole day just doing that! Crazy times! I think the Doc thinks there’s something going on. I dunno. I got a bow. I’ll grab some arrows from the armory and use Nolan as target practice! hehe... laterz!

June 17-20 [AS, JK, JS, MA, TB (2013-5-26)]

So good news, bad news, but more good news. Ricky is no longer part of the team! But now Felicia is no longer with us either, which sucks. I love her heals and she was pretty cute too. But this, like, Sorcerer dude has joined the team. He’s pretty tall and has all the flashy spells, like my brother. Magic is cool as long as it’s being used against someone who is not me!

Doc, who is now leading Team Lightning, took us to the Temple of the White Knight, but it was boring. The next day the priest says there’s something else going on in the graveyard, like I really wanna go back there, but whatever. Anyways, someone broke into an old vault, and when we go to check it out these huge zombie things attack us! We killed ‘em dead right away, though.

After patrol, I spend the evening workin’ on the crossbow. I guess Doc and Dynith got yelled at at the bar by the old dude, and Krusk killed a Goblin that was hiding in some kid’s closet.

Next day, again, this Elf chick tells us all about the local Goblins and something about some hero Gobbers. It turns out people are really liking us. Go Team Lightning!

On the 20th, this Halfling comes up to us and tells us a friend is in trouble, or something, I wasn’t paying attention. But we’re supposed to go to the glassworks. So we go, and it’s locked, but I took care of that and what do we find... more damn Goblins!

June 20 [AS, JK, JS, MA, TB (2013-6-9)]

So we chase the goblins downstairs and start checking the place out. Then Dynith makes a crazy discovery. The mean old guy is dead... in glass. His uglyness preserved for all eternity!

We head down to go after the goblins and there’s that elf guy helpin’ them! He’s all like, bouncing around attacking the casters, then I jump over him to stop him from escaping, then Doc kills him! Woot! We clear out the goblins and continue looking around.

The elf had a diary with some drawings of some naked demon chick... not cool. And then we totally find Ameiko and free her. She took the news of her dead family rather well. So we head back to the barracks to show them the diary and it looks like the goblins are gonna attack the city again so we hafta be ready.

June 21 - 22nd [AS, JK, MA, TB (2013-6-30)]

So with the freaky demon chick out of the way, we start to check out the rest of the place. Past the prison we find a torture chamber with a side office. The room has door with weird, mutated skeletons! So much freakyness in this place.

Next there’s this room with zombies in pits. I check it out and it looks all good ‘till this crazed goblin charges out. He’s got 3 arms... and they’re all armed! Poor Karn is pushed into one of the zombie pits and gets chewed on, then even Doc is knocked down by the big gobber. Krusk and I beat and stab the mutant until it dies, but we havta carry Doc and Karn outta there. Got a nice magic sword out of the deal. We head back to the barracks and report in, once Doc and Karn wake up, anyway. We rest up.

The next day, Karn goes asking questions, so I work on my crossbow... almost done! Some dude is saying the town will be evacuated... as if! Then we head back to finish checking things out and...

OMG... MOST FUN EVER! There’s this room.. an’ you float around.. an’ there’s stuff floating around. So I jump in and start flying!!! Wheeeeeee!!! I grab all the stuff and keep flying around while Doc looks at the book. So much fun! Must remember this place!

Okay... calm down. We check out some more spiral stairs and Karn says he hears dogs barking. Then we head down the smuggler tunnel to find a cave where the gobbers have been camping.

We head back and go on patrol again. There’s this guy yelling about burning stuff, then sets a building on fire. I guess we should deal with that.

June 22 - 24th [AS, JK, JS, MA, TB (2013-8-25)]

I sneak around the crowd to get a shot at the crazy fire guy while Karn starts telling them to go home, or something. Then crazy guy tells the crowd to attack us! So I totally nail him with a well placed arrow… zing!

Then three guys are on me trying to grab me. Why does that always happen!!? I dance around them for a bit, stabbing them. The rest of the crowd goes after the team. I see Krusk get all big and smashy again, but there’s guys piling all over him. And at some point the crazy dude summoned a fire thing! Wow!

I beat off the guys hitting me just in time to see the fire dude run away like a pus.. sorry… Mom said not to use that word. The team has beatin’ off most of the crowd and the rest are leaving, but we’re in no shape to give chase. We head back to the barracks to report in.

We spend a couple days resting up and I finally finish my first hand crossbow! Yayz! But now we’re told to go after the goblins. Like we really need more of those little buggers.

So we head off and into a forest where we find a hidden area with some caves. I explore ahead a bit, trying to figure out where to go. Sure enough we end up at this cliffside view of the island we’re supposed to get to. It’s pretty pretty, actually, but then some goblins come out and attack us… of course! But we fought them off pretty easy with just a few flicks of my rapiers! Woot!

June 24 - 25th [AS, JK, JS, MA, TB (2013-9-15)]

We want to get over to the goblin island, but first we need to get to the bridge. Why does this place have to be a bloody maze!? We’re wandering in circles for a while, but I sneak up on this gobber and his big dog. I try to get a shot off, but the dog can smell me. But then Dynith comes up and invisibles me!

Then it gets weird. The grass grows all around us and starts grabbing. The dog is attacking and the gobber is throwing fire at us. What the hell is that crap?

Anyway we get all stabby and bashy and kill the dog, but the goblin is running around and Dynith is shooting at him. Finally we take him down, but we’re hurt so we rest for the evening.

Ugh… I hate waking up early, but we gotta sneak across the bridge. Note to self: Krusk is not good at sneaking. We get up to the fort okay, then Karn makes a hole in the wall. I sneak up the tower, but my first shot misses and the two goblins attack me, but I get some backup and now we gotta take ‘em all on.

We search the fort and there seems to be a party going on. I check around and find a room with sleeping goblins. I decide to end their miserable existences myself.

Okay, so, brilliant plan here guys! Krusk can bash through the wall while Doc rushes through the door, right?

Yeah. Not so much.

We’re getting pummeled by gobbers. Karn goes down in a heap, but Dynith keeps him from dying. Does that rhyme?

Anyway, I go after the singing goblin. BTW, do not want to hear anymore goblins singing! While Doc and Krusk take on the group. After a bit more pummeling, we take ‘em out, but Karn is really down for the count, and he’s got all the heals! Get up, dude!

June 25th

We loot the bodies and find a potion, and Dynith is like, “I wonder what this does,” and shoves it down Karn’s throat. Luckily it’s a heals potion and Karn is back up. He heals Krusk and we decide to keep going.

We explore the rest of the keep and find stairs down. But before that we find a horse! He’s alive, but hungry so we feed him and Doc makes a new friend! Then we kill the goblins torturing seagulls.

Then I sneak downstairs and find a war room with a secret door. We know there were people here so we go through the door down to the lower level, which is a temple of some kind. We should really stay out of underground temples ‘cause bad things seem to happen there, but oh well…

I’m scouting the next room and hear a click and jump back before a trap gets me. As I’m disarming the trap, the guys are giggling about the shape of the room. I don’t get it.

They want to check the trap, and I’m like, “it’s totally disarmed, guys.” But Krusk wants to test it by using a statue or something, then some really scary chick walks out of a door and starts coming after us. I just want to point out that she doesn’t trigger the trap… so it’s totally disarmed.

Anyway, scary chick has some wiz backing her up, but comes after us and I stab her and she attacks me, then this dog comes out and… OH GODS… SO FRICKIN’ SCARY. AHHHhhhhh….

WTF?

Everybody follows me outta there, fortunately big Krusk picked up my cool rapier, but then he says Karn… died. Scary chick just killed him dead. Poor Karn. I mean, he was creepy and all but, he was a good healer.

Doc figures we need to regroup since we’re hurt and stuff. We collect the horsie and I dash across the bridge. While I’m scouting ahead I hear a scream and the bridge has given out. The horse is okay, though. Doc fell a long way, but into the water. Krusk fishes him out with some rope.

We fix the bridge and get everyone across. Now the long road home without Karn. I sad.

June 25 - 26

The horsie seems pretty happy, but the rest of us are pretty bummed out as we walk home. Well… Dynith is all smiles and sunshine, but he’s nuts. Anyway, we’re walking home through the forest when this old, bearded, crazy-lookin’ dude just jumps out at us and starts yelling about the end of the world and stuff. He’s lookin’ for Karn. We had to tell him.

Anyway, the old dude is actually kinda cool, and and heals us up. Then he follows us. He talks a lot… particularly to himself.

We get home and report in. I don’t think the captain is too happy with us, losin’ Karn and all. And not beating the mean chick. And not getting all the plans and stuff. I think we screwed that one up big time! But, we killed lots of gobbers, so that’s pretty good.

Next day we patrol a bit, then I sell off all that crap we’ve been getting. Who knew goblin armor could cost so much!? While I’m doing that, the old guy is following me and he’s still talking to himself a lot. Then Doc finds us and we head back to the barracks.

Ok, so those catacombs we cleared out, right? Seems there’s more trouble. This dude, Marcus, from another team got his whole team wiped out by these people and he describes them, and they sound like the mean chick and her wizard and stuff. So, yeah…. we gotta do this again!

We head down and make our way through when we run across a bugbear and some guy who attack us. We take ‘em down pretty easy like and we finally capture someone! Go us! This Orac guy tells us that Nualia wants to get into the temple and probably kill us again. But Doc says we have to stop her, so off we go.

We make it to the temple just as -get this- Nualia jumps into the pool that spawns those freaky things! Crazy shit! Dogs and Zombies, and the wizard chick all attack us and AAHHHHHhhhhh…

Damn, those dogs are scary!

When I get back, the team has wiped out the dogs and zombies. Dynith seems really pissed that the wizard chick disappeared. So we check out the pool, which is all like bubbling and stuff. Then… oh man…

This, like, more demonic version of Nualia rises up and sprays all this stuff on us. Marcus takes a shot at her and it looks like she’s gonna kill him but this hand rises up outta the pool and the bitch takes off. Then it gets weird!

This beautiful golden child comes out of the pool and I’m all freaked out, but she’s dying. I hold her and she tells me she’s the innocence of Nualia. She tells me we need to stop Nualia or else doom and shit… K… that sucks.

The child dies and I’m sad and then she starts glowing brightly and there’s a burst of light then…

When I woke up, everything was very blurry at first, but soon that cleared and everything came into sharp focus. Everything seems brighter. Something has changed. Doc even says my eyes look different.

W T F?

June 26 - June 27

Okay, this may seem odd, but like, we all feel good. Really good! Ultra good! Team Lightning is all powerful!!!!!! Fuck yah!

We head back to town and I can totally see in the dark now! Orac has escaped, but we’re trying to track down Nualia. We get back and the captain is there saying she’s attacking people so we go after her.

Damn, she’s a mean bitch now! We hit her hard, but she manages to escape. I’m sure we’ll never see her again! Yeah right… and monkeys will fly outta my butt!

The captain is hurt so we take him back to base then we go for drinks to celebrate our awesomeness! Woohoo!

Ok, so, everything’s kinda fuzzy after that but I woke up in Felicia’s bed somehow. The team wants to go back to Thistletop, which makes sense.

Along the way we hear something really creepy in the distance. I’m sure it will not have any effect on our current adventures, now or in the future…

We scout around the second level. Not much there, though we do find some gobber kids and mums. Decide to leave them alone, though I’m sure they’d kill us if they could. There’s another temple there too… these guys really love their temples. We find some plans about attacking the town again. Sheesh… like L’Trel hasn’t been through enough shit already.

June 27

We’re searching the lowest floor, right, and find Kurn’s body. I totally don’t cry, or nuthin’. We’re debating on what to do with the body for some reason. I don’t know much ‘bout that stuff.

Then we come across this horror room with burning skulls and shit. There are some journals there and Doc seems interested. Then we move on and find a secret door which you need to insert a coin to open, so we do that. Pretty neato.

Okay, shadows are pretty freaky, and only magic can hit ‘em. Go Dyneth! We rest up for the day, exhausted from shadows. Weird, am I right?

So, guess who we find? Really, guess! I bet you can! Because she’s every-fucking-where! Yup, Nualia! This time she’s got a big blinky dog and some Goblins. We take the gobbers out quick but the dog is a bitch… well, not literally… well, not that I can tell, I mean, it was blinking.

Anyway I’m trying to stab her, or him, or it...I dunno. Dynith is blasting it, while Krusk goes after Nualia.

When I wake up (yes, knocked out again… that can’t be could for my brains), the dog is dead and guess what!? I bet you can’t guess! Oh wait… yes you can. Nualia’s run off again! Bitch.

We find treasure, and prepare to make our way home again.

June 27-July 14

Sorry, diary. I guess I haven’t written much lately but it’s been booooooorrrrrriiiiinnnggg around here. I bought a sweet dagger (would’a made it myself but I don’t have time). Visited the horse with Doc (he’s good, though people want to eat him). Had some drinks with Big Krusk (he can sure down those drinks!). And I laughed at Tim on his soapbox (no throwing of veggies… people are starving, you know!).

Today something happened, though. We came across what looked like another team with prisoners, but Doc noticed that their uniforms were too good. Then the dude in front pulls out his rapier and stabs Doc ‘till he goes down. Bastard.

Ok, so turns out they’re slavers and these people are slaves. We’re fighting them, but two of ‘em try to like, make hostages of the slaves… they even killed a couple of ‘em. Bastards!

We totally take them down, though, and take their stuff, and take ‘em back with us and now they’re working and the one guy is this totally freaky chick! What the hell!?

Cool hat, though. Turns you into people. And we even got a sweet magic rapier! Oooohhh!!!

July 14-15

Capt. Terun tells us there’s been a murder. Like this town really needs more crap like this! Sheesh… why can’t these people just get along!?

So we go to the Tannery and there are two bodies. One’s totally mutilated and all nailed up and stuff with that star thing carved into his chest… ewww. The other one is a chick… we’re thinking wrong place at the wrong time for her. We check the place out and find blood, footprints, an axe, usual murder stuff.

We split up to follow different leads. I check out the girl’s house, but her sister kicks me out after Dynith opened his big mouth. Note to self, don’t take that dude anywhere.

There’s another witness at the Sanitarium. Yikes… it’s quite the trip out there so we head out the next day. Overall the walk is quiet, though we hear that devil thing again. Then this dude on a horse comes riding towards us. He tells us that talking bear prostitutes mugged him.

Okay, so there are several things wrong with this scenario:

I mean, how would a guy do that stuff with a bear? I mean… would it fit? Prolly wouldn’t do much for the bear.

What payment do they take? Just food? Cheap dates if you ask me.

Why did they mug the guy? I guess that’s obvious… how many tricks can you pull in the forest when there’s no one around.

Anyway, we get to the spot and track them down. Sure enough, they’re eating and chatting. Doc decides to talk to ‘em while I sneak around. Fortunately no one took a shot at them even when they got all demanding of food. We walk away quietly. Dynith figures they’re from the faerie realm… I guess that’s pretty cool. May have to visit the area on another full moon.

Alright, so we finally get to the creepy insane asylum and the doctor there is all rude and doesn’t want to let us in. Krusk gets diplomatic with his fists and the now bruised doctor lets us in. Honestly it’s kinda creepy in there so I don’t know why my brother suggested I should go there last year… doesn’t seem like much fun.

The doctor brings out our witness, but he looks all crazy. Then the shit happens when Tim casts a spell to calm the guy down. The doctor goes running and the orderlies start getting all aggressive like.

I’m sure we could’a handled this easily, but then like, Ack! Zombies!

July 15

So we’re swarmed with zombies, the orderlies are in the way, and then this crazy necromancer steps in. First he throws this white powder in our faces, then he makes the place stink to high heaven. I really hate this guy but my brain’s all fuzzy. I go in for the kill but there’s like. different versions of him or something. Oh no! I’m not drunk again, am I?

Dynith has brought out some help in the form of fire and ice, which is cool…. and hot. Ha! See what I did there?

So, I’m not entirely sure what happened after I attacked the dude, but I somehow end up back in the forest. I hate casters! Gods!

I’m trying to find my way back when I run across Tim and Krusk and that Grast guy who doesn’t want to come back so we head back and the rest of the team have captured the necro-dude. Big Krusk roughs him up a bit (he seems to enjoy doing that) and gets him to un-blind Dynith.

I check out the basement. It’s a crazy wizard lab with corpses and crazy shit like that. I find another wand and I rip a map off the wall for Doc… I think I got most of it. Everyone’s talking about hearing dogs outside so I go and look but don’t see anything. Doc says we have to find Grast, though we’re concerned about the dogs.

So yeah, out into the night to find a crazy dude and there are mean dogs around… this is a good plan that will end well for sure. Pfft…

We’re going along the road and I’m quiet but the rest are loud. We hear the dogs again so we hide. Then this crazy-looking dog thing with glowing green eyes approaches and he’s looking at us and then Dynith says something about it being fey. So, more bears or what?

We step out, knowing that we’re dead if this goes wrong. Then more dog things approach, but they don’t seem mean. Then this… guy(?) on a huge fire-breathing horse comes out and he’s looking for a fox… the dude, not the horse. I think the bears mentioned fox, but Dynith tells him this.

So then, this other horse thing comes up beside me and OMFG. This total hottie fey chick is riding it and I’m like “hello cutie.” But there’s this shiny thing dangling and she’s not paying attention, right… but yeah, she spots me making a grab for it.

Okay, so hot chick is dangling this shiny thing in front of me and she’s totally like, go on, take it. I grab it and there’s this flash of light and the shiny thing is gone and everyone’s staring at me.

Meow?

July 16

Ummm… So this is kinda weird. They’re telling me I look like a cat and OMG! I have a tail!!! That’s so frickin’ cool! Everything smells weird too.

So the fey chick tells us to play a game of cards. I’ve never been too good at cards though several guys at the pub have tried to teach me, but I don’t get it but this game seems simple enough. We’re playing something called tricks.

Anyway, we’re playing, and crazy shit starts happening. Doc wins first, and picks a card, and he gets big… like really big! He’s not happy about that. Then Marcus wins and… get this… his body is destroyed and his soul is now in this glowing crystal thing! Crazy!

Then I win and pick a card, and now I’m apparently nobility and will get a bunch of money! Crazy, I know! I’m like, queen of the cat people or somethin’

The hot fey woman then tells us to keep doin’ what we were doing by going after that crazy guy. We find him and he’s all like crying or whatever, so I go to help him this really crazy undead dude comes up and he’s all like, obsessed with me or something. That is so freaky!

He takes a swipe at me, but I get away and he’s all like crying and stuff and the fey chick is not helping. Suddenly there are more mes all over the place and Graste starts attacking a me, then the creepy one starts attacking me and…

Well, once again I wake up held up by a tree. Fey chick is all like, you’re all not that entertaining, and stuff. She makes Krusk glow a bit, and Tim starts laughing like he’s being tickled, and Dynith is all wet and miserable, and Doc just gets all quiet. She gives me this thing so I can see my old face… I haven’t even seen my new face at this point. Then she goes away.

So we head back to the asylum and the doctor and the necro-dude are gone. I find a mirror, and yeah, I’m a cat person! I’m all orange and white, but my hair is still red. My brother is not gonna be happy about this. Still love the tail, though. Tim’s like all restless and can’t sleep for some reason so he keeps watch while we all sleep. In the morning we head back to town. We pass a guy who is also complaining about Fox. When we get to town, people are all like, WTF? Why’s Doc so big? I dunno, I just have fun riding on top of him!

The Captain is not impressed with our crazy report. Can’t blame him I guess. Doc goes to get Marcus un-crystalized, and also get un-embiggened. I should visit my brother.

July 16-18

So, Big Brother was a bit upset with the whole cat thing. I dunno why. It’s pretty awesome when you think about it!

Anywhose.. we take care of some bidness. Doc is now normal Doc-sized, which is kinda too bad ‘cause it was fun riding on his shoulders. Marcus comes back from the crystal thingy.. though he seems different.

We try to get some sleep but there’s some big booms overnight. Turned out the army shot and sunk a big boat so Doc is all like, we should find the boat. Tim puts this like, bubble magic on us so we can totally breathe underwater and we eventually find the boat. There’s some stingy eels there and some empty crates. We bring up a sealed pot but all that was in there was some silver and a dead rat. Ewww…

Might be a plague boat… I’m sure it’ll be fine. We find the Captain’s cabin and a body dressed in robes. After reporting to our good Captain sir, he lets us rest from all the poisonings.

I spend the next day selling all of the useless stuff we got, but we get lots of money! The rest of the team checks out various things and Marcus and Krusk and Doc get into a big fight about where we’re going next. Marcus is all about the scarecrows, Big Krusk in on about the clock tower for some reason.

Anyway, next day again. We get back to the clock tower and dude there is all like, there’s nothing going on, but Dynith is like, there’s something going on the dude is not cool. I’m checking outside while the guys are poking around inside and…

Why are they screaming like little girls!?

July 18

Turned out to be a flesh golem. Creepy bastard. It starts hitting Doc, as usual. Marcus kinda hangs back which is a bit weird. I dance around the thing and get all stabby, and with Dynith blasting it, it goes down pretty quick. It had some gold and stuff in its pouch and it was wearing a sweet cloak, so I grabbed that.

Also, it had a mirror. Ya know… I look pretty damn cute as a cat!

Anyway, we’re looking around the tower and the place smells weird. Like, really weird. As we’re walking up the stairs we hear a loud GONG! and one of the bells starts to fall. Bad news!

The bell drops down and takes out Big Krusk and Marcus, leaving the rest of us on the stairs without meat shields. These crazy devil things drop down while hanging from chains and start whipping us. Dynith gets some shots in, but these things are nasty. Doc gets a plan and has Dynith cast a spell and we jump and float down like butterflies. Whee!!

The devil things knock out Dynith, but Marcus keeps firing at them. They soon run away, but try to seal us in by covering the door in chains. They’re no match for Big Krusk who breaks them in one hit. Doc orders us out.

I’m pretty sure I can climb the tower but Doc is like, no way, we need a plan. Pfft… oh well, he heads back to the barracks while we watch the tower. Nothing much happens but there is a roll of thunder in the distance.

Go Team Lightning!

July 18-20

We has a plan… which doesn’t work. I tried to climb up but those stupid demons attacked me so we have to go in. I still get to climb up while the rest go in. I get in and hear the fighting below me so I’m like, I’m gonna release one of the bells, right? Wrong!

K, so I go down and join the fight, but they’re still hanging from the chains and I can’t do much but take a few pot shots at them. Doc’s doing pretty good, Dynith blasts them from below, and even Big Krusk gets a few hits. Finally we down those bastards!

Marcus and I are like, gonna check the top, so we do. First we find a bird in the cupboard… weird. We get up to the roof and I’m like, sweet view! Then something stabs me in the chest. I wake up on ground, somehow. Marcus is like, big snake woman on the room! Crazy! Apparently she was invisible.

We rest for the night ‘cause we’re pretty wiped, then head back up next morning. Marcus gets Dynith to fire off some spell that makes everything sparkley, but we don’t see her ‘till she takes a stab at Big Krusk. Then Dynith throws down a web, so I can’t get behind her.

Anyway, we’re fighting her, right? Then she like disappears over the side. Then she comes back! Then we fight her. Then she disappears again. Frustrating!

At that point we notice a whole bunch of chests in the corner. I’m like, phat lootz! But she comes back, and we totally kick her ass… er… snake-like lower appendage.

The chests prove resistant to my mad skilz, but we find a key on her and open the chests. Mad lootz!!!

July 20 - July 29

The guys decide we need to take another corpse back to the captain, so Big Krusk rides the snake chick down the side of the tower. Lucky!

While they load the corpse onto the wagon we found earlier, some kids are throwing rocks at the flesh golem. Turns out they think it’s the scarecrow and… whoa! We killed the Scarecrow! We’re legends now! EPIC!

The captain is not happy about the corpse, but glad we killed it. He tells us more people are getting sick so we decide to check it out. Doc and Dynith head for the hospital while Tim and Marcus check the well.

Big Krusk and I head out to the mafiaosos to see if they know anything. We’re stopped by this dude with a glazed look. He hands me this medialion with a cats-eye gem in the middle. Cool-ness! But then he’s all like, “who are you? Where am I? Give that back!” UGH!

So I give it back and, get this! He hands it back to me! Like, make up your mind, dude! So I put it on and it tells me I’ve inherited the fortunes of the lost cat race and I’ve been named “Countress of the Gatera People.” Not exactly sure what that means, but it seems cool. The guy is pissed, though, and wanders off.

We meet up with the team, but no one believes me about the medallion. Everyone else met sick people. We have a clue, though. Turns out the sick people may have gotten sick from the river, or something.

Next day we go to check out the river, but this guy shows up to thank Marcus for curing his kid, or whatever. We go to see the girl and she likes me ‘cause I’m a cat-girl. She tells us she found some money by the river, so we go to check that out and find more of those coffers, but they’re empty and there are dead rats everywhere.

Doc sends me back to the captain to report while they search the river more. I’m good with that, since the money might be infected. Anyway, I’m told the council of Mages is looking for me. You do not want to mess with those people!

I go, reluctantly. They’re all mad and stuff ‘cause they want the medallion back, ‘cause it’s some important artifact, but it wants to be with me. They tell me that it was found in the ruins of some old castle or the Gatera, and I likely inherited it after being turned into a cat, ‘cause there are no more of them. That’s pretty sad, actually. Anyway, inside is a hidden space with a whole bunch of gold. I’m not really sure what to do with this, but I think it’s important for later. At least no one can take the medallion from me.

So now I’ve pissed of the mages. Great. I head back to the river and find the team still searching. They want to check out the ship again, so we do that and Doc and I dive down like before. This time we find a shark, which we totally kill. Then there’s this pissed off sea hag who summons another shark. We decide it’s not worth the effort head back up.

We spend the week on patrol and selling off all that loot. More people are getting sick, which sucks. We start a campaign to tell people to wash their money. I try to make a song, but it’s not really catching on.

July 30 - August 3

The priest dude, Ashani, has asked to see us so we go, ‘cause like, why not? The plague is getting worse, of course, and he wants to talk to the captain and pull everyone together. Good luck with that.

So, we escort him, but we’re told they’re meeting elsewhere. So we find ‘em all at the Citadel meeting with this guy called Dr. Davalis and some creepy guys in masks. They’re hoping to help too, and everyone lived happily ever after. Ya right!

Anyway, later, we’re checking stuff out and we hear about a party for rich people. Also this chick has been selling a “cure” out of the perfume shop. We go to check it out but it’s way too smelly for me. I guess there was some arguing and Marcus comes out with the cure. We take it to a Alchemist and he’ll check it out.

In the mean time the guys have me check out the mansion where the party is. Everyone’s dressed all crazy-like, but they seem to be having fun. It doesn’t look like I can sneak any food out or anything, so I leave.

Next day we find out the cure is so not a cure, it’s not even funny! We go back to the shop. I still don’t wanna go in, but I hear a lot of shouting from Tim, which is not that unusual. Next thing I know, Big Krusk is bringing the woman out and the guys are closing up the shop. We finally bring someone still alive back to the captain!

So, today this short dude tells us his brother is missing. He was at the party, of course. We go in and everyone’s dead. I guess it was bound to happen, still… Oh Gawds… Zombies again!

August 3-4

...and they’re dancing. Now that is some freaky shit going down.

We decide to crash the freaky party, then this nutso chick starts attacking and she’s dressed like a harlequin. So, she’s taking shots at us while we keep finding zombies all over the house. She’s also freaky good at hiding… turns out she’s invisible.

Eventually we spot her and start chasing her around the house finding more and more zombies. They’re pretty easy to deal with, actually, but she puts up a fight. But, of course, we’re like awesome and take her down. Fortunately we keep this one alive and Marcus takes her back to the captain while we search the house.

We find some food and drinks… whoa… drinks! Woot! We also grab some loot from the crazy clown. Searching the house, we find an old man and brought him back too. I think he was the host or something. Anyway, no sign of this halfling we were looking for.

The team wants to interview the harlequin. I’m cool with that and whoa… her armor is freaking awesome! Sorry, anyway, she’s nuts, but Dynith is all like, “hey baby.” And she’s all like, “hey there yourself, dude,” or whatever I wasn’t paying attention. But I guess her boyfriend has been hanging with some necromancer in a hidden lab and capturing halflings… sigh.. we’re gonna have to look for this now, aren’t we?

August 4

Yep. We are.

The first thought is to check out the warehouse where the creepy doctors are supposed to be helping people. The Captain is wary of our suspicions, but he’s cool with us checking stuff out. So we go and there’s this mean old bag workin’ reception. She’s all like “you can’t go in there!”

Anyway, while the guys are arguing with her I slip inside. The rest follow me, though. The room is full of sick people and those doctors in masks. There’s a couple guards there, and before we can do anything, they’re drawing weapons. Even the doctors attack! WTF?!

We fight ‘em. Even with guys shooting at us from the catwalks. I think a few patients got hit, but we’re trying our best, right? After taking them all out (the doctors, not the patients), we discover that the masks can prevent getting the plague. Like, how did they know, ya know? Conspiracy theory much!?

There’s an elevator that will go down, but there’s a missing button, so we go up the stairs to find more guards and doctors. We take them out, but there’s still someone in the room. I can smell him! It’s the head doctor! He’s a caster of some kind and tries to escape. I must admit, he’s a rather compelling speaker and maybe I see his point of view and…

Fuck! He’s getting away, but Marcus is hot on the trail and down he goes! Oh, and he’s experimenting on halflings! Creee-Peee! The one we’re supposed to find isn't here, but they’re all like, cut up and stuff.

We’re gonna take these guys down! We find the missing button and take the elevator down. More creepyness with skeletons on the doors. Ack! They attack you! This is not going well. I need to motivate the team somehow. Marcus says he doesn’t like my singing, but I know he totally does!

August 4

Another room, more guys that wanna fight us. We handle it pretty quickly, even though there are skeletons this time. Damn those undead. Checking the room I find bottles of wine. That’s our victory party right there!

We search around some more. I go to check out this one room where they have bodies everywhere. Eww… These people freak me out!

Finally we get to this room with all kinds of crazy going on. This one guy is surrounded by priests and undead, and they all attack. Dude is throwing out the major magic, and Marcus rushes in all suicidey. I can’t get through, can’t attack, but I remembered this one song this bard sang about battle and stuff, so I like start singing!

We get through into the room, and the guy blasts have the party with lightning. Big Krusk takes a hit and looks in bad shape, so I go to help him and I’m all like Krusk! And this, like, light comes out from me and heals him! I’m all magicy and stuff now, like my brother! Crazy!

Anyway, we rush the guy but he like, teleports out or whatever, so another one gets away. Now we’re hurting and have to get out of this place. I hope we don’t run into anything else.

August 4 - September 4

Yeah, no such luck. We’re cleaning house when this chick comes out and she’s all like, blah blah blah, kill. Blah blah, death to all. So she gets all floaty and casts a spell and I can’t seem to stand up. She also creates a wall so we can’t get out. We take out a couple more minions, then she comes down and hits Marcus with something and he goes down hard, right.

Eventually Doc and Dynith take her out but… Oh My God. She killed Marcus! You Bastard!

I check out the next room which has a bunch of large glass tubes with weird creatures inside and one of them is trying to be my friend. Then the main room gets cold and the witch’s body starts to get cold. Some shit is going down so I go and check things out up ahead, but all there is is some temple and we can’t get out that way so I go back and there’s this like creature coming out of a portal. The shit gets real.

So there’s now this big undead thing that was the witch. It gets all floaty too and everyone runs into the room with the tubes and Doc’s all like, “this is where we make our final stand!” Dynith hits us with a big spell and we get all faster. I get behind it and Doc and Big Krusk hit it hard. The beast goes down!

Woohoo! Go Team Lightning!

We search the rest of the area and pick up all the loot and while Big Krusk knocks down the wall. We check the other doors and find some like, octopus dude with the halfling we’re supposed to save. Turns out octopus dude is quite the gentleman and leaves after we give him some money. We grab the halfling and head upstairs.

The army is waiting for us. Turns out they let the “doctor” go. Morons! And they think we killed everyone. Well, I guess we did, but we have to explain that they were all bad. We have to report to the Field Marshall to get it all sorted, but they eventually believe us. The plague doctors are arrested.

It’s been a slow few weeks, though there were some moments of interest. Turns out that asshat, Nolan, figured out what caused the explosion and is getting all the attention while the army is trying to cover up the whole corrupt doctors thing. The plague is getting better, so we got that going for us which is nice.

Get this, diary! Our three months of service are up. We’re free from the army! Yay! Even better, we’ve agreed to stick together. Team Lightning Forever!!!

The captain wants us to stay, but agrees to pay us if we find out what has happened to Fort Ranick. Okay. But it’s a long trip to Turtleback Ferry. Hopefully nothing slows us down.

September 5 - 15

Hi Diary. It’s been a pretty quiet few weeks, so I mighta’ missed some stuff. Like I totally forgot to mention the new chick who joined the team, Cerce… Circe? Ceres? Something like that. Anyway, she’s a witch. Not the bad kind, right? Like, a good witch… I guess.

I also didn’t mention the rat thing. But that was pretty nasty so I’d rather forget. Anyway, we’re off on our trip which took like, 10 days. I dunno, the witch doesn’t talk much. I feel like we don’t really know her yet.

We get to the town of Rousillion, but things are quiet. Too quiet. I know, right!? The team stops to talk, but I don’t notice and find a zombie sweeping the street. I guess it’s cool he wants things clean, and all, but… ZOMBIES!!!

We take him out and start searching the area. We find the occasional zombie, then we get to this big open area. The town square, or something. I’m checking it out when the team catches up with me. We find the church, the bells start ringing and all these zombies come out of everywhere!

Big Krusk and I hold the front line while Doc and the casters have to deal with zombies dropping out of the buildings. Tim and Cerce take to the skies (lucky!), while Dynith shoots a fireball, then becomes all misty and floats inside the church.

Anyway, Big Krusk and Doc slowly pummel their way through the hordes, though it’s kind of a pain that the zombies keep getting up. Guess you have to chop their heads off or something. Eventually we clear them out and get inside the church.

There are a bunch of people inside who say that this all started a couple days ago. It seems there may be something down in the mine to check out, but first we should find them some food and stuff.

September 15 - 16

So, they’re kinda happy to see us. But this one guy is all like, “I’m in charge here!” And Doc is like, “now we’re in charge, dude!” (Okay, he didn’t actually say ‘dude’ but you can kinda picture him saying that, right?) So they argue for a bit and I start chatting with people. There’s this couple who seem nice at first but they’re kinda nuts and the guy starts hitting on me and I’m like, “barking up the wrong tree, dude. Your girlfriend is kinda hot, though.” It’s okay, they get turned into zombies anyway.

Whoops… spoilers.

So Big Krusk and this blacksmith guy barricade the doors again and… is Krusk, like, flirting with this guy? Huh…

So we’re keeping watch and I get paired up with the couple who ‘disappeared’ downstairs. I’m about to look for them when the crazy priest starts screaming not to go down there and then the zombies attack and there are millions of them!!!

The pour through the doors and get all bitey. Dynith starts blasting them, but there are too many when Circe says we need to get downstairs. I make a rush for the basement door between waves to find a tough-ass zombie and those two morons-now-zombies. Fortunately Big Krusk, Doc, and the witch come down to help me ‘cause this is one bad-ass motherfu....

Anyway, we beat him down and the zombie hoards all collapse. They’re still twitching, though. I think we’ll have to burn the church down. Anyone want a free town? Total privacy. Almost everyone is dead. A few are undead. It’s a fixer-upper!

September 16 - 18

Yourgen… that’s his name, right? Well he’s all like “it’s my town now, bitches!” We tell Tim to keep an eye on the priest while we try to find more survivors, and we succeed. Tim fails, however, and lets the other guy go. Turns out he was the one we were supposed to be looking for. He doesn’t come quietly, but we find this evil book he was using to make zombies.

With the town secure … sort of… we head out. Apparently the next town is where Tim comes from. It’s a pretty dreary day and it’s pouring rain when we come across this strange little village in the middle of no where. I totally think it’s a ghost town, but there’s a nice-looking inn and it’s raining so…

Ho-ly Fuck… The inn tried to eat me! I give this place zero stars out of five!

Like, totally the inn, the stables, and even the bloody outhouse all start attacking us. And they all have these freaky giant tongues. And it grabs me with it! Ughh… I can’t get away and it swallows me! Ewwwwwww!

Ugh…

Oh Gods… Ughhhh….

This is the worst Inn I’ve ever been inside. I can’t even get a drink!

I slice my way out, but I’m behind it so I make my way around just as Big Krusk is swallowed up. The stables are actually moving away for some reason. I get to the door… er… mouth and stab it, but its tongue slaps me and…

I wake up from someone’s heal spell. Doc is cutting Krusk out of the dead inn. And… okay so the outhouse is chasing the stables and trying to… have… relations… with the stable. I never, ever, would have thought that would be something I would write in this diary.

I mean, if that’s what you’re into… I don’t judge.

Yuck… what am I covered in? I need a shower. And a bath. Ugh…

Doc’s telling us to run. Considering all of the other building are slowly moving toward us, that’s a damn good idea. So we book it out of there. We eventually find a place far away to camp for the night.

Ughhh…

We continue the hike the next morning and get into town. I immediately head for the nearest tavern for a desperately needed five drinks.

I still feel dirty.

September 18 - 21

So everyone’s like, whoa! Who are these cool people!? They’re totally in awe of our fabulous-ness. Tim starts arguing with some kid and we’re greeted by Father Mateus. He’s like, collecting for the church, and stuff. But, there’s trouble. Turns out some wizard dude was killed a couple days ago. Trouble always finds us.

Anyway, we’re trying to sleep but there is more trouble outside. Circe and I float out the window while everyone else stumbles downstairs. There’s some cloaked thing being attacked by people, turns out to be the same wizard now undead. Here we go again.

So, we start investigatin’ by going separate ways. Big Krusk and Dynith check out the wizard’s home. The witch wants to see the witch stones. Doc and I check out the home of Tim’s wife and kids. Crazy, huh?

We decide not to tell ‘em that their father is alive and crazy, ‘cause that would be mean. They answer Doc’s questions, but one of the kids seems all nervous and stuff. Eventually they don’t want to talk about it and we meet back with everyone.

Yeah, the wizard dude, up to some serious shit. I’ll just summarize ‘cause it’s kinda a lot. But there’s like, these stones in a circle by the town, right? Yeah, the circle of stones were these old shaman dudes who imprisoned this demon by turning it, and themselves into stone. Then the wizard uses a ring to bring one of the shaman back, but it wakes the demon, which is out there killing stuff and will likely come back for its chalice which the church has.

How do we know that? We decide to un-stone one of the stone shaman dudes who tells us everything. Also, he’s like freaking out ‘cause he’s been stone for like a few thousand years or whatever. Oh, and the demon is loose, so he’s not liking that. He does like Krusk, though.

That night, some kid tries to steal the chalice. Probably charmed by the demon. The Father won’t let us take the chalice, though, ‘cause it’s for some important ceremony. Ugh… he’s really gonna make us do this.

We have to wait ‘till the next day, so we opt to break the news to Tim’s family. Needless to say they’re shocked. I finally get the full story out of the daughter, Zut. Seems she got her brother to eat part of the demon and he got like, possessed and shit. Then Tim, being all fatherly and stuff, performs an exorcism, but ends up possessed and crazy. We figure that by killing the demon we can clear all this up.

Next day, right. We escort Father Mateus and he starts the ceremony. This kid interrupts then turns into a demon! Dude!

We fight it. It’s hard, but we bash it in pretty good. Tim vomits all over the place after, and then he seems fine and less crazy. Not sure what’s gonna happen now, but we think he should stay with his family.

September 22 - 25

We bid a tearful farewell to our good friend, Tim. He opted to stay with his family. He’s also no longer crazy! Bonus!

We continue our journey. We run into that Ranger chick who helped us out a while back, and she joins in on the trip. A couple days later, we make it to Turtleback ferry. Turns out they’re a reason they named it that. Circe was not impressed. Following the ride, we head into the hills.

Doc hears something, and when we stop to listen it sounds like crying… like a bit cat crying! Kitty?

A big kitty is caught in a bear trap, but he’s pretty friendly and I get him out in a second. But then we hear some bad singing and a pack of dogs, so we stay to protect the cat. Then this ugly, ugly hunter comes up with his dogs and let’s just say he’s not much of a talker.

He takes his lumps and runs away after we’re forced to put down the dogs. The cat is all like, we have to follow him, but he doesn’t actually say that because he’s a cat and that wouldn’t make sense. We soon come across an old farmhouse and barn and this old freak playing a banjo.

He’s not so friendly either and we have to pound on him. I’m just gonna hide behind Big Krusk from now on. I do pick up the banjo. It’s in pretty good shape. I’m sure I can clean it up. Now Dynith is not impressed.

The barn has more of these Ogre-kin, so we check out the house. It’s trapped up, but we get in to find more traps, and more ugly inbred Ogres. This is a nasty place with body parts everywhere. Searching around we clobber a couple of the Ogres, then we run into this giant plant thing. And by run into it, I mean it tries to eat me.

Big Krusk gets me out while Dynith burns it down. We find a cache of equipment which appears to belong to the Rangers from Fort Ranik. Trouble-a-brewin’.

September 25

So we’re messin’ around, checkin’ out the new gear. Shalalou? says it belongs to these Ranger dudes up in Ft. Ranik and she like, totally recognises this cool bow. It’s like all sparking and stuff and I should get something with lightning ‘cause like, team Lightning, right!?

I’m about to check out the house and Circe says she hears something. Yeah, big Mami got out of her stinkhole.

And, yeah. No foolin’. It stinks in there.

She burst through the front door but didn’t pop the traps, so we’re looking around and the rest of the Ogre-things are waiting for us. So we get this bright idea to go to the second floor. Then they set the house on fire, so I guess Circe got what she wanted after all.

Oh yeah, and Mami’s on the roof. She can fly, dude! Circe finds this out ‘cause she can fly and she’s all like, “let me check this out first!” Now she’s blind.

So Mami takes some shots at the witch while we jump out the window. The Ogres are coming after us. Dynith blasts most of ‘em away while Big Krusk deals with the rest.

Shelalou heads for the barn, so I chase after her. We get in and head upstairs. Lo and behold, the Rangers are there! There’s something going on downstairs, but I gotta get these guys out. The big cat is happy to find his master, so that’s pretty heartwarming.

September 25 - 26

I’m helping out the prisoners, yep, Rangers, when there’s more commotion downstairs. When I look down, Big Krusk is jabbing a giant spider with a spear. Good for him!

The Rangers are pretty happy to be free. Happier for the heals and food. Happy again for their equipment back. Happy the cat is okay too. So…. yeah, happy. They tell us that Ogres attacked Ft. Ranik and they’re not happy about that. They think it may have been an inside job. Not cool, dude.

We agree to help them… since, ya know that’s kinda what we’re there for. They sketch out a handy map so we start strategizin’. It seems there’s a secret passage through the waterfall… isn’t there always?

We spend the night in the barn. It’s pretty warm considering the house is burning down. Then we head out the next day, though it isn’t far. As we get close we can see ogres in the fort, but we manage to sneak in close to the lake… which is full of blood and dead bodies. This just gets worse and worse.

There is a cave, for sure, but it’s a short climb up. As we make our way along there are some shocking lizards, but the Rangers are all cool and talk ‘em out of attacking. There’s some crates with weapons here, nothing great except for some wicked arrows that Doc grabs.

Finally we arrive. I get all sneaky and scout around. There’s a watchtower that seems to be pretty fragile. I mark a spot for Big Krusk… more on that later. There’s a few ogres around, so I report in. Turns out the barracks are in bad shape and prone to fire. A plan is hatched!

I set fire to the barracks then rush back. Big Krusk runs out and clobbers the tower bringing it down… on himself… oopsie. The ogres are less than happy and more dead. Others come out but don’t last long against the team. Finally the big guy comes out… we know because he’s more detailed than the rest.

Dynith makes short work of his minions, while the rest pummel the big guy to death. Go team Lightning plus Rangers! It turns out the ogres in the barracks couldn’t get out in time and perished in flames! Woohoo!

Now, here’s where things get weird. We get to the keep doors… or what’s left of them, and Krush bashes a hole in them. Then he grabs one of the Rangers and says the guy did it. We’re trying to sort out this mess as Krusk interrogates his new prisoner. I’m all like “you’re doing this now!” Thats when the ogres came to see what was going on.

September 26

The ogres are not so happy to see us and rush out and hammer Big Krusk who dropped Kavin. That bastard ran off into the keep! He is bad! We pummel the ogres and make our way in, finding many more of them as we scout around.

I check out the basement, which is supposed to be a jail, but turns out there’s like this, luxury suite down there where one of the snake chicks has been hanging out doing who knows what. Doc seems to think that Kavin made his way down here, then they both disappeared. So now we gots someone else to track down… damnit!

We go upstairs to find even more ogres, including a big guy that’s really hard to hit, and a mage that starts blasting us with lightning. Like, how dare she use lightning against Team Lightning! Circe went down hard, and later Dynith joined her after dishing out the fireballs. Big Krusk hit hard while I tried to keep everyone alive. It’s a good thing those Rangers stayed with us too.

We’ve knocked down the ogres now, but we’re not in great shape. We’ll likely find the cleanest room and rest. There’s some loot from the ogre witch too!

September 26 - 28

The ogre witch had some good stuff. We do some gear trading and I’m all… whoa...I can sing better now, I know it! We’re also checkin’ out the commander’s room. Turns out he’s like, totally having an affair so he was out “visiting” when the Rangers were attacked. Bad move, dude.

The Rangers want us to look for the guy, so we end up heading back to the Turtle place, but it’s all like flooded and stuff. And people are swimming around and there’s these snakes so we kill ‘em then OH MY GOD… Big… THING! In the water!

It’s gonna like, attack the church because it’s big so it obviously attacks whole buildings. Krusk rushes in, and the whole walking on water thing proves useful. Dynith and Cerce can fly. I admit I’m a bit hesitant, but I manage to fire off that new acid wand thing.

So the Black Maga, that’s what the locals call it, turns and like… breathes on the party, or something, and they’re all like… whut? I’m like… c’mon guys! Get with it already. Cerce is punching Dynith but he prolly deserved it. Eventually it just got bored and swam away. Why is Krusk punching himself?

Whatever. It’s gone. The water kinda drains away, but the town is totalled. They say we should check the old dam. Damn… guess we gotta. We kinda help out around the town. Krusk wanders off for a while and returns somewhat frustrated.

So, next day we go to the dam. There’s this, like, stairs made of skulls, which is freaky. Then I climb up and run into this big dude with two heads. We get rid of him ok, though. So onward we find some ogres slowly breaking the dam. We get all stabby and soon they’re done too. Who’s next?

September 28

So, we enter the damn dam, and there’s this big room covered in the same skull motif. These guys are really into skulls. And trolls, apparently, ‘cause they drop down from the ceiling. Dynith goes all firey on their asses, which is good ‘cause I hear they’re allergic to fire.

The rest of the area is pretty clear, but there’s this door that has some grafitti that Dyneth translates as “Wet Papa Grazool.” He sounds fun. We go downstairs (exactly 150 feet downstairs thank you very much) and there’s even more skulls. A whole pile of them. And a pool. That’s when we meet Wet Papa Grazool. He has a trident that he introduces to us, painfully.

But he’s not to bad, and Doc fishes up the trident. It’s heavy, and powerful, and really strong. After that we swim around a bit and end up in another room with this big freaky scorpion thing. It jumps on me and stings me and really seems to want to bite my head off, but everyone helps rescue me, which is nice. Go Team Lightning!

I feel really clumsy right now.

September 28 - October 2

There’s like this, model, of the dam, in the room. Dynith checks it out, and it’s like really powerful magic. Turns out it controls the dam but it’s not getting any power. He also finds this spinny, floaty, stone thing he seems happy about. K, so, remember that big pile of skulls I mentioned? Yeah, that’s where the power comes from.

There’s this devil dude in the room all caged up and he’s like, “help me,” or whatever. He’s all sick and hungry, and yeah, like I feel bad for some devil that would probably eat me if he had the chance. The guys figure if something magical was inside the other cage, it might power the damn damned dam. Dineth summons this hell doggie and the place rumbles. The devil turns to dust, and the floodgates open up and we’ve saved the town! Woot!

After all that, we return to town. Everybody is so happy and we get pie! We rest up for a day before heading out again to look for the Ranger captain.

We row, row, row our boat gently through the swamps, but it starts getting all creepy. Then this pixie flies down and he’s all sad and says Mirianna is sad, and now I’m sad, and I hug the poor wittle pixie-wixie. Doc agrees to follow him.

Then there are some ghosts, which are pretty creepy. Even Big Krusk is shook up by them. Then there’s this ship just, there. Circe flies up and checks it out. She returns with some stuff including this cool music book that I’m sure would be inspiring!

Then we see her. Her ugliness is blinding… literally. She’s all like, in despair over the loss of her love, the Ranger dude, and the Orgres took him. We tell her we’re going that way anyway and we’ll find him… or his body. ‘Cause we’re really good at bringing bodies back to people.

Big Krusk rows us blind folk back to Turtle-Back and we rest again so Circe can help us with the whole ‘blinded by the ugly’ thing. The Rangers just show up out of nowhere and want to help us take out the Ogres once and for all!

We head back to Fort Ranick, but it’s getting colder. Fortunately they just happen to have some extra cold weather gear we can use. Not exactly a fashion statement, but it will have to do. We get to the base of this big mountain and find a path the ogres take, so we follow it up to this big cave with smoke and guards.

With the guards out of the way, we head in and find this huge statue of a giant. I climb up to look around and it has the same medallion that Big Krusk has but it’s bigger. Circe flies up and unhooks it which causes the statue to not be a statue anymore and it crumbles and makes a lot of noise. Oh Shit!

A giant and two ogres come up to investigate. Big Krusk charges in for the kill while Dynith blocks them all from escaping. We take some lumps, but kill them. Now we have to go into the mountain.

October 2

We head in to destiny! If destiny is full of ogres, that is. I check the place out. There’s a forge where a bunch of ‘em are working, and a dark room with a shrine… nothing at all in there. Nope. Nothing. There’s a bunch of hags around a cauldron, and we figure we should take ‘em on first. This goes fairly well.

After that, I check out this huge cavern where some stone giants are hanging out with a snake lady and a cold-looking ranger…. wait… that’s who we’re looking for! Dynith makes me all see-through-like, I try to draw out the stone giant guard but no luck. We gotta take ‘em on. It’s pretty hard, though, ‘cause it turns out the king dude is a caster and they’re all pretty tough. The big cat goes after the runaway ranger all on his own! The guys lay down the hurt while the girls heal and support.

Doc and Big Krusk are getting hammered… literally. Eventually we knock down the stone giants, but flying snake woman decides to heal the king. But then, he surrenders… what a twist! She’s all pissed off, but not for long ‘cause she’s soon dead.

While looting, the king tells us of these plans to attack Latrell which is not cool. Also, the ranger captain was handed over to the hags to guard the shrine… so he’s undead. Now we just have some cleanup to do.

October 3 - 6

We’re busy looting and IDing, and Doc gets really excited about a particular wand which seems odd because he doesn’t use magic but whatever. One of the ogres is spotted watching us. He runs away to tell the others. When we get to the forge and they’re arguing about what to do. That’s when Dynith gets all arcane on their asses, sealing them off with an ice wall and throwing fireballs at ‘em! We have to wait to take on the leader, but he’s pretty easy.

Then we go back to the shrine and me and Doc check it out. The undead ranger captain is there after all and starts shooting at Doc so we pull back. Krusk rushes in and we follow. Turns out the captain is now a frost wight and he’s pretty cold, but we kick his bones. Big Krusk doesn’t feel quite as tough after, but he gets better later. The rangers have a moment, then we grab the body and head out of there.

The rest seems to happen pretty quickly. We head back to Fort Ranick and part ways with the rangers, then we head back to Turtleback, then back into the forest to meet with the nymph. She’s less insane, but sad about her lost love. Then, in the single sweetest thing I have ever seen, she sacrifices herself to bring him back to life. But he comes back as a nymph, which is okay I guess.

One odd thing, though. As her spirit drifted away, she touched me. It felt warm and enlightening. I feel more inspired!

We begin the journey home, which seems easier this time as Dynith conjures up some cool-looking horsies. They can even run on water! A couple days into the trip we spot some more stone giants walking along the riverbank. They see us too. I take a shot, then they start throwing rocks at us. Dynith and Circe are knocked down, so Big Krusk and Doc charge in while I get the casters back up.

That wand, that Doc was oddly all excited about turns out to be pretty cool and weakens their leader. With everyone casting, stabbing, and bashing, we eventually bring the stone giants down. I feel stronger again!

October 6 - 7

Hang on, Diary... shit’s about to get real.

After dealing with the giants, we find our way to this old waystation. It’s pretty old, but the cabin is okay. It’s pouring rain so we’re all like, let’s stay here for the night. Yeah. Big mistake.

Heh… big.

We kinda pass out, or something, then I find myself all alone on this giant wood platform. This suit of armor comes shooting out of my backpack! Then, all these damn goblins come down off ropes and start attacking me. I try to get away but they’re all over the place. When I climb the rope, though, OMG! I’m still in the cabin, but it’s huge. Or… I’m really small! The platform was the chair I was on, and the table is there.

I have no choice but to drop down and take on the goblins. They’re pretty nasty, but I do okay, then the rest of the team shows up just in time to take out the last of the goblins. We do have to look for Krusk, though, and eventually find him on the floor. That armor turns out to be the mini armor I found back in L’Trel. It also turns out to be really awesome for Big Krusk.

Some more gobbers show up and one’s all like, mesmerized by my awesome banjo skills. He turns out to be the chief. The others talk to him with magic, but I’m led to believe that Circe cursed him, Dyneth poisoned him, and Doc tried to be nice. He tells us stuff about the area, like rat riders, garden people, and what is outside. We decide to camp on one of the chairs and check out the garden.

Hoo boy. Next day we go outside and this humongous weasel just like, grabs little me and runs down his burrow. Fortunately Big Krusk and Doc come after me, but where the hell are Circe and Dynith!? Big Krusk beats it off me so I don’t get eaten again.

We find a body with some magic items that seem perfect for Circe.Turns out this was a witch who was trying to figure this place out ‘cause there was a map and stuff. There’s like these, scrolls that are all sealed up. After finally showing up, Dynith wants to open ‘em but Circe thinks they might be dangerous.

Climbing up out of the cave the big world awaits us. Doc looks at the map and figures we should stick to the main path. That seemed like a good idea, but I guess we also seemed like lunch to this gigantic bluebird, ‘cause he starts flying toward us. Dynith shoots him then Circe casts a spell, turning the bird… into an even bigger butterfly! What the actual fuck?!! That was not an improvement.

Luckily for us another bird sees quite a huge lunch and tackles the butterfly before it eats us. Going off the path seems like a better option, and we happen across a small-person sized path. We even find bridges and stuff so it seems there are others here. Doc spots a trip wire and then…

October 7

Yeah, it’s a trap. I’m about to disable it when these humans come out of the bushes and attack us. For no reason! Why do people always do that!? Anywhose, we fight ‘em off easily enough, and Circe puts one to sleep so we can talk to him. He’s not all that forthcoming but does say we should “talk to the cat.” And I’m like, “I’m right here, dude.” But apparently there’s another cat.

Deciding to not yet speak with the other feline, we continue down the path to the shrine thing. But there’s gigantic ants in the way and Dynith starts to freak out. We manage to get around them, though and get to the shine.

Of course there’s stuff going on. Some gnolls are starting a fire and there’s some dude trapped up to. We kick some gnoll ass and help the guy down. He’s Marlowe. He’s like a priest, but he’s been small for ages and helps us out. He tells us that there’s this legendary Elven thief who might be the cat. He had some kind of treasure. Treasure!!! We must find him.

Before all that, though, we head for the Halfling area to get more info and maybe rest up. They’re usually a friendly bunch.

October 7 - 8

We’re heading towards this giant tree where the Halflings are supposed to be. We get up there and there’s all like, defensives that they’ve set up. Seems smart. I sneak in and there are some little dudes in there so I figure we should go in and be nice.

That doesn’t work. They’re not Halflings, they’re Gnomes. And there’s this yellow powder everywhere. They run away when we approach, then the whole place esplodes!

We’re pissed now, so we chase after them wondering what they did to the Halflings. Once again, Circe puts one to sleep for an interrogation. Turns out they killed the Halflings to take over the place, but we think there might be survivors. We proceed to tear the place apart and soon end up dealing with this one tough one that throws fire at us and stuff. But we end up blowing him up in the pit of centipedes. So that’s all good, right?

I scout ahead and find one Gnome drunk off her ass playing with a stuffed gnoll. She’s not overly helpful, but we share a drink, she tries to steal from me. Not cool, bitch!

Proceeding forward, we finally find some Halflings. They’re rather nervous, but eventually thankful that we got rid of the Gnomes. They take us into a room with a gigantic diamond! Sooooo shiny!

In the room are the rest of them including their mortally wounded leader, Burton. He calls upon Doc to lead his people and then proceeds to die rather dramatically. It was sad, but now the Halflings need us to save them.

We help them clean up and dispose of the bodies. I climb up the giant tree and there’s this glow in the distance that is apparently coming from what the Halflings call the fire tower.

The next day, the Halflings set up defences again. This guy, Aubrey, visits and he has a message from the Cat guy: “What you seek is above Turtle lake.” Huh.

The Halflings go there to fish. We leave Krusk behind to guard the Halflings. Aubrey comes with us but when we get there, Dynith is convinced he can teleport us, but not Aubrey. We teleport up into the giant swimming pool that was the fountain. Bit of a wet landing, you might say. Unfortunately what we need appears to be in the tier below us, so we do this convoluted jump so we can pull Circe down with us who is permanently feather-weight.

When we get down there, there’s this huge glass sphere. Circe seems to recall a story of a Wizard who was researching a powerful artifact that was stolen from his vault. I surmise that the Cat guy stole this and somehow got everyone in the area shrunk down. But, we don’t know what to do about it. I guess we’ll grab Krusk and find the Cat dude for some answers.

October 8 - 9

After dealing with more birds and ants, we make our way back to the house and head for the stables. We see some hobgoblins with horses go in, so we follow. Nothing happens to the horses, but we know what has happened to the hobgoblins. Moving forward, there’s a scout in the hay to takes some shots at us but we take him out.

Further on is a shelf with some little people above, so we decide to make some friends. Dynith teleports us up there while Circe takes flight to be our cavalry. Fortunately our negotiations work out and they’re happy to see us… well, they’re pointing weapons at us but it’s all good. We’re all like, take us to your leader, so they do.

They’ve made up a village but the Cat dude wouldn’t see us. All we gots was this cryptic message: “You know what to do.” Yeah, thanks for nothing.

We head back and tell the halflings we’re going to destroy the sphere, ‘cause what else are we gonna do? So, next day we’re back on top of the fountain. Dyneth empties out the water so Big Krusk and Doc can pound on the sphere. It takes a few boring hours, but soon the sphere is broken.

It feels weird… something happens. We can only hope that everyone gets out of where they are. Circe starts to fly off, but we embiggen pretty quickly. As does everyone around us. Soon we’re surrounded by all the people who were small. I mean, the halflings are still small, but they’re as big as they should be. So is everyone else… uhoh.

October 9 - 13

So, everyone’s all that WTF, so we get the jump on ‘em. Big Krusk mows down the Gnolls while the Halflings dogpile on the remaining. The Gobbers pour out of the house only to be blown to pieces by Dyneth. Then, out of freaking nowhere, the Cat dude jumps out and tries to blast Dynith and me. I pull off some bullet-time shit, but Dineth takes a jolt.

Doc comes down hard with that hook thing, but Cat jumps out of the way somehow, so all Doc manages to do is rip the Halfling’s tree out of the ground. Kinda works out since the little guys get their diamond back.

Circe then gets all polymorphy again and turns the Cat into a cat in some twisted sense of irony. Unfortunately this just makes it easier for the Cat cat to get away.

The Elves go marching one-by-one, but the humans seem pretty confused and stay in the house. We get kinda stuck with the Halflings. Circe, Krusk, and I use Dynith’s magic horses to hoof it back to L’Trel to warn them, leaving Doc and Dyneth to send off the Halflings.

When we get back to town it’s pretty late, but we report in immediately, ‘cause we’re all concerned and stuff. The captain’s all like “Giants!? Whaaat?” And we’re like, “yeah, they’re a comin’ dude! Get your banjos ready!”

After sleeping in, we do some shopping and preparation. D&D come tearing in later the next day and Doc is all about getting his bow re-jiggered.

Anyway, Dynith wakes me up too early the next morning… I mean, the sun is barely up! But he’s all like “the giants are here!” I think they’re crazy. Who attacks this early in the morning?

Oh wait… these guys, apparently. So yeah, we head over to take on the first group of giants. They’re not too tough, though flying Circe takes a couple rocks to the face. Dynith hits ‘em with a wavy light cold wall thing.

Now Circe’s all like “more giants and a tentacle monster!” Dyneth looks far too excited.

October 13

Holy freakish flying potato with tentacles, Batman! That’s pretty much the only way to explain this one, and it’s like, heading into town. We race over to try to head it off, but it’s too high. And not the good kinda high. Like, 500 ft. high! It seems to be headed for the army headquarters, so we chase after it.

Now it lands on the building, then jumps down and starts blowing fire at it and eating people. We can’t have that so we go in. Dynith opens up with missiles, Big Krusk charges, Doc shoots, Circe doesn’t fly in and get herself killed, and me… well, I’m just trying to keep up. Anyway, pummel, pummel, slash, slash, zap, zap, dead, dead.

But no time to hang around, the stone giants are moving in. We head back down toward the docks and take on a couple groups of ‘em. They suck, but we’re doing okay so far. The town, not so much. More fire. This town is all about the fire lately.

October 13

More giants, more bears. They’re hanging around the lighthouse for some reason. Circe starts flying but drops down, when I go to help her, this giant throws a brick at me. Ouch! Circe picks it up and is all like, “hmmm… I know of this stone.” Or something like that, I was kinda out of it.

The giants are rushing at us, then, and you are not gonna believe this, Diary… Nualia comes out. I know, you’re surprised, aren’t you!? She’s like “get the brick!” Then, I see a giant rushing at me.

I wake up from a heal from Circe to find all the giants are down and Nualia is gone. The party heals up, but she’s really gone. One of the giants is still alive, so the questioning begins. He’d better give up all the info.

October 13-19

He did. At least we think so. He’s all like “we have a giant army of giants and will crush you all!” We’re like “yeah, yeah. Heard that one already. Tell us something we don’t know.” Then he’s like “okay we’re all conveniently gathered in one spot, and I’m gonna tell you exactly where so you can find us and destroy us.”

We spend the rest of the day chillin’, though Doc really needs to shop. Circe buys more shops. Then she renamed the magic shop after my Mom. That’s soooo sweet! +10 Friendship Points!

Doc needs some better armor and weapons so we hang out for another day, but then the next we head out for the stairs. We get there rather quickly thanks to Dineth’s horses, but it still takes a few long days. Finally, though, we arrive.

There are some giants watching from the top, but we get the jump on ‘em through the use of Precision Teleportation Magic™. Now, we had the situation well in hand, but Circe decides to calm things down and Dynith lays down a smokescreen, which does not stop one of the giants from pounding on me. But soon they’re all dead. They had a nice stash, which is ours now, and we rest for the night.

A path leads into the mountains, and Doc’s sure the giants came that way. I’m not one to point out that there is literally no other way they could’ve come, but whatever. Let him do his Ranger thing. As we walk along, we spot a hunting party. They get PTMed™, shot, fireballed, stabbed, bashed, demoralized, and burned again.

October 21

The march continues into the mountains when we spot a watch tower. Dyneth uses his floaty eye thing to scout it out and there’s another giant keeping watch… which I suppose makes sense in a watch tower. We PTM™ up there and the giant tries to get the attention of some stoned guys down below. We take ‘em all out, though, and check out the view.

So there’s this huge fortress in the valley, right? And all around it are camps of giants, which is bad. We consider sneaking through until Dineth is like, let’s teleport. He uses the eye to check out the fortress and figures the roof of some temple is the way to go.

Tell you right now, it is not.

First (after the subsequent PTM™, of course), we’re attacked by giant birds. But these aren’t small birds that seem bigger ‘cause we’re small. No, no, these are real big birds and we look like worms for dinner. Circe pulls out the old Baleful Polymorph deal again (reminder to self, come up with a trademark for that one too), and turns one into a butterfly. The other one is sad and flies away.

Then, we’re attacked by harpies who try to lure us off the edge. Doc is lured off the edge, but he can fly now, apparently. Flying is in. Circe starts flying, Dynith starts flying, I don’t think Big Krusk took the leap, though.

We take ‘em out too, and teleport and fly down to the ground only to be attacked by a mammoth. I mean, who keeps a mammoth around, honestly!? Big Krusk holds his ground but the mammoth is bigger. The others are like, “get inside the temple,” so we do that. Bigger Mammoth can’t follow us.

It’s pretty cold in here, and there’s not much else. Doc spots a trap door. It’s even colder down there but Circe “Danger Witch,” flies down the hole and makes friends with an undead mummy monk. It’s kinda pissed, guess she woke it up, and starts trying to kill us. It’s doing a pretty damn good job, then Doc… oh that Doc… takes aim.

One shot. Right to the head. Nothing but brain.

It looks like it’s carrying something important and fragile, fortunately between my quick magic reflexes and Circe’s quick arms it’s saved. It turns out to be a mystical, magical, scroll case that is locked up tight. Dynith uses magic so Circe can read it and she manages to open it. Inside are many old, but useful, scrolls including one super powerful one that makes you go insane if you use it. I’ve opted to stay away from it for now.

Oh, and Dyneth and Krusk are feeling real down in the dumps. But Dinith creates a house for us to stay in for the night. I think we’re gonna check out a big pit in the middle of the fortress. What dangers lie beneath? Will Team Lighting survive? Will I ever figure out how to spell Dynath’s name right? Find out in our next exciting adventure!

October 22 - 23

So, this is my 50th entry, huh? Cool! I wonder if anyone will ever read this.

We emerge, triumphantly, from our icy tomb… a couple days later ‘cause Big Krusk and Dieneth ain’t feeling so hot. There’s a … guard (?) kinda keeping watch, but we take him out. He does get a few screams out, though, so we got some more giants throwing rocks at us from the towers. Not cool.

Circe starts up her flying thing as we race up. Despite taking a rock or two to the face, she puts ‘em down, litterally. She totally puts them to sleep! Then Doc and Krusk get all smashy with their skulls. So, one by one Circe puts a giant to sleep, only to have their heads smashed. I even got to do one! I’m less messy.

After that, I go around and check out the rest of the buildings. Doc wants to take out the rest, but Big Krusk is unsure. Eventually Doc’s logic wins out and we hit ‘em hard! There’s a bear! And a Mammoth! There’s even frost giants. Oh, but we left the mammoth alone ‘cause it’s not really his fault.

After that we head down the big hole. It’s a big hole. That’s what someone said.

I’m poking around but I smell a bear, and the bear smells me. It’s kinda awkward. Doc wants to slip past, but the bear won’t have it and attacks him. It tries to knock him down the big hole, but that ain’t happenin’. More sleepytime for bears.

October 23

I guess the bears weren’t alone. I mean, that’s pretty obvious, but still. The giants come out to play, including this particularly big one. But, as we’re fighting ‘em, he drinks this potion and turns into a cloud and floats away. Pussy…

Anyway, we fight off the rest of them but there’s this one giant woman who was hiding. Turns out she’s some kind of priestess. Her husband was killed because they didn’t support this Macmurion dude, and now she’s pissed and wants us to take ‘em out. I guess we could do that.

She draws out a quick map of the place. Doc wants to take the ‘hard’ route, the rest of us aren’t so sure. So we try for the ‘easy’ route. First off, there’s this kobold who is in the hammock. Kinda wish I knew that before I jumped in. Then there’s this small dude with a big scythe who tried to slice my head off… and very nearly succeeded, btw.

We continue on to find a hallway with traps, so we’re trying to figure out what to do when more of those snake chicks come out and want to have tea. That seems nice, but they’ve tried to kill us before so we’re not big on this idea. Next thing I know we’re fighting them and a couple of trolls. One snake is killed, but the other slithers away. The trolls go down in flames.

We’re kinda hurtin’ but we must press on, because we’re heroes! Or something.

October 23 - 24

So, it seems all the blah blah blah is catching up with us. We consider moving on, then the whole freakin’ army starts heading our way. Big dude from before is leading the mob, and other snake lady is all pissed off. Big Krusk is like “here comes the party.”

I don’t see how that’s a party.

Dynath starts out by melting faces with fireballs, while Circe tries to put ‘em to sleep. Big Krusk and Doc take point, and I bring out the shiv of healing. Big boss dude goes down pretty quickly, but Doc starts taking a pummeling. Krusk works to get in there, but snake lady freezes him. The goons even throw rocks at Dynith which does knock him down, but I get him up ‘cause we really need the artillery right now.

It’s an epic struggle and things look bleak. But we’re Team Lightning! We do not go down easy. We go down hard! That’s what she said.

I dunno how, but Circe turns snake lady into stone as a revived Doc and Dyneth put down the last giants. We’re okay, but really hurtin’. After collecting some loot, we go back to the shrine/temple place to rest, but the giant chick is like, no way, dudes. Go where the snakes were.

The place is damn creepy, but safe enough. It seems the altar can move, but Doc’s like ‘this is not the time for your shenanigans’ or something old-fashioned like that. We rest up. Next day, though, Big Krusk moves the altar only to discover some reading material for Circe.

We head out and down. There’s some tunnels and hallways and such. I’m scouting around, Doc is close by, and the rest of the team is making noise. Suddenly, there’s a racket behind me and everyone’s like ‘think came out of the wall and spat hot lava on us’ or something. They do seem a bit toasty.

We’re looking around for the thing and Dynith pulls out this weird, creepy monster thing. Then there’s this weird room that’s all wavy and stuff. Dyneth sends the monster in there and it gets small and sick. We’re figuring out what to do when Circe decides to walk in too and gets small and sick.

This is not good, until someone (don’t know who) figures we should just PTM™ across. Circe just walks through. Now she is small, but Doc figures that actually might help her cause she’ll be harder to hit with rocks.

October 24

Up ahead is a room filled with a strange green mist that’s coming out of a massive, bubbling cauldron. Now, you’d think this would be perfectly safe, wouldn’t you? But you’d be wrong! It smells terrible and stings my poor eyes. Doc is all like ‘casters need to clear this up’ so Dynith starts putting out the fire with rain. Meanwhile the creepy critter he summoned got smooshed by something.

The mist begins to clear (I’m fine, BTW, thanks for worrying), and I peek in to see big, giant, stone dude. Krusk makes his move, and Doc takes a shot. They actually bring it down pretty damn quick. Unfortunately that fire-spitting thing comes back out of the wall and spits on Doc, but we get all bashy with it too.

The next room is cold and has a bunch of frozen giants in it. I figure I can just sneak through. The zombies figure otherwise and start moving. Creeepy!

Doc joins me and we start hacking away as Big Krusk charges in. Dieneth warms up the room, which is nice, and takes out most of the little zombies. The big boss with no head freaks out Doc and Circe, so we hafta stop ‘em from running away. Big Krusk, though, finished the job up nicely. They have some nice loot on them for the selling.

Next, Dyneth is all like ‘I’m gonna scout this time’ with his floaty eye thing. Why didn’t he do this earlier!? Sheesh. Anyway, there’s rooms and halls and such, typical dungeon, and a strange door we need some kind of key to open. There’s a lot of collapsed hallways and stuff around here. Wonder what happened.

October 24

We enter the big cavern room, and there’s something in there for sure. Turns out to be hounds from hell. Shit. Well, they’re pretty freaky, but Big Krusk and Doc deal with them pretty nicely.

The next room isn’t so great. First off, it’s all foggy. Turns out the guy we’ve looking for is in there. Macmurial is all like “imma kill you!” He, like, freezes the fog, or something. Circe and Doc fly over it and attack while the rest of us pretty much watch. Dynith does make it pretty windy to blow the fog away, and pops off a couple of spells too.

After the beatdown, the McFlurry guy isn’t looking so hot, and decides to teleport away like a sissy. Doc’s pretty upset about this. We take a look around this like, magic lab, or something. Dynith and Circe are kinda interested, but it’s pretty boring. Doc wants to burn the place down. He must be getting lessons from Circe. Anyway, moving on…

There’s a door. I try to open it. It glows… This ain’t good.

October 24 - 26

So this big, bright, glowy thing comes out of the door and is very friendly and helpful. Just kidding, it tries to kill us. A bit of pummeling later, and it’s down so we try the door again. It seems that when we try to force the door open, the glowy thing comes out ‘cause that’s what happens again. This one’s a bit more tactful and triest to trap us in with a wavy invisible force wall. Big Krusk isn’t so happy about this, but one PTM™ later and we’ve dealt with the second one.

This time we’re a bit more subtle with the door and finally open it. Inside is a massive library. This machine thing comes toward me screaming something, then Dynith says it wants to help like a regular old librarian. So that’s cool, but then we hear something coming down the hallway. Something big. Something that are a lot of things that are big.

McNugget has brought the army down on us. This is problematic. There’s also this really big giant (it’s not redundant), then Nualia appears and takes down Doc. Not good, right?

Well Circe takes down the big one, which causes the giants to start fighting each other. McFlurry wants Nualia to deal with the giants, and I just knocked her big sword out of her hands, so she’s all cheesed off. Then Dynath hits McShake with a spell and he goes all psychotic and his eyes glow and he’s all like ‘imma kill you all, destroyer of worlds, etc.”

Doc and Krusk chop off the dude’s head and shows it to the giants and Doc’s all like “look at me, I’m the possessed Rune Lord now!” So they all stop fighting and leave. Nualia shrugs and disappears.

We spend the next couple days doing research in the library. The librarian is quite helpful and keeps bringing us books. Wait, why am I doing all this research!? Just ‘cause I listened to stories in the bar they think I know everything.

October 28 - November 6

So, a couple days actually turned into a week of studying. I gots to admit, there’s some interesting stuff in those old books. Circe studied up on ancient Thasilonain, while I took a more general approach.

Doc and the others found the missing townsfolk who were more than happy to not be giant lunch. When we were done in the library, Dienith summoned up those horses again and we raced home.

L’trel was in chaos, as usual. Oh they were so happy to have us home that they immediately wanted us to do something else. I guess the ground opened up and some scouts went in and didn’t come back. I hear Nolan is with them. Awww… that’s too bad. </sarchasm>

So we head down and lo and behold! We’re back in the temple ruins thing. So we’re looking around there, and I wanna go back to the floaty room!

Okay, so we’re looking around and it’s all foggy, right? Also there are these hidden doors that only Doc can see when Dynith gets magicky on him. Then this voice outta nowhere is all like, “I’m from the past… woo… Tell me everything about everything…”

And I’m like, “I don’t think we should tell him everything,” but Doc’s all to happy to spill the beans. Then the shit gets real. I’ll tell you what happened after.

November 6

Okay, we’re under attack… apparently. Can’t see a damn thing. A couple of zombies, or something, appear around me, but I get away from ‘em pretty easy. Doc is all like, “bad dude over there!” Then we’re suddenly floating. I mean… c’mon, universe! First we can’t see, now we can’t move. Doc’s the only one who can do anything.

Dynith starts making us fly so we can get Krusk into the fray and me to heal him. Apparently one guy went down, the other disappeared, not that I could tell. I’m not bitter.

Then we go tromping through the fog. Doc’s like “hark, there be dogs here!” They howl. I got scared and ran.

November 6

Doc catches up with me (not easy, btw) and the scribbler (who I ran away from) has dissapeared again (not hard when you consider all the fog). We’re back together and continue on. Then there’s this new room at the end of the hall where Doc says Nolan is chained up. Big Krusk goes in, then suddenly gets all crazy saying we should get out of his way. WTF?

Nolan isn’t Nolan, but the Scribbler again. He really likes to PTM™ around, which is annoying. The Scribbler tries to attack me, and I knock his chainsaw sword out of his hand. It kinda hurts to hold it, so I keep that in my pack. Dynath starts acting all weird, so to solve that, Big Krusk knocks him out. Wait. I don’t think he used the blunt end of his sword.

Anyway, Big Krusk storms out of there and the rest of us follow. The Scribbler gets in his way, but seems to have forgotten that Big Krusk is very Big and hits hard. So he’s dead and Big Krusk returns to normal… the not hitting us normal, anyway. Lots of healing bring us all back up.

We go back to the crazy room and there’s a hidden door. Then we find one last room which gave me quite the headache. I tell the others to stay back, so of course they walk in. Morons. Anyway, we do find the body of the actual Nolan. Circe is pretty broken up, but Big Krusk keeps his cool.

We’re supposed to go to this place called Runeforge. Some kinda magic creation place. Seems neat.

We get back to the surface of the town and everyone is all like, “what happened to Nolan!?”

Krusk is more concerned with some zombie-lookin’ dude with a hat an’ goes after him. Turns out it’s just Willie. Wait… who’s Willie?

Anywho, the captain is happy to see us, but not so happy about the bodies we brought in. He starts talkin’ about a state funeral for Nolan which we’re all fine with. I guess Big Krusk still blames Nolan for robbing me a while back which I kinda forgot about. I don’t even remember what he stole. Maybe that other earring? I dunno.

Circe wants to check out her bar while Doc goes shopping. I get to the bar to sing and there’s this spider-dude there. Seems friendly, though. I guess he’s from the neighborhood.

November 6 - March 5th

So, we’ve decided to stick around town for a bit ‘till winter passes. Or until Spring arrives, whichever comes first. I do some shopping, though it’ll be a bit before some of it gets in. To pass the time, I meet up with a couple of locals who are totally into my groove, so we can lay down some wicked tunes. But just as we’re getting into it, my wizard brother shows up!

Lavon figures he’s a big name in the Wiz biz, and he’s on some special mission to some library in Soniga, or whatever it’s called. Anyway, he wants me to go with him. Shouldn’t take more than 3 months, he says. Turns out the place is in a tropical paradise, so looking around at all the ice and snow around me, I’m all like Hells Yeah!

Anyway, diary, I’ve written the whole event out in a separate scroll, so check that out before asking me any questions. (Scroll not yet written)

I’m pretty psyched to get back, though. I mean the month we were actually there was quite… well… interesting. But the ship travel was rather boring. Particularly after that meanie wizard through my banjo over the side of the boat. I mean, come on! He did not appreciate what I went through to get that in the first place!

Doc’s like, “we’re going.” Where are we going? Another library. Well, they called it the Runeforge. I guess the Rune dudes weren’t allowed to go in and there are weapons and stuff we can use to defeat them. So a few days of riding Dyneth’s crazy horses and we arrive.

There are these face pillars there and it seems like we have to use magic. So we do. And we get these keys. Guess it’s a good thing so many of us can use magic. Then we climb up this big staircase thing. We’re attacked by giant rocks and I stop Big Krusk from falling to his doom.

We go in this big skull-cavern and down and I’m sneaking around and… holy mother of … There’s a freaking Dragon down there. Do you know how insane Dragons are!? Because I do! Because I saw one!

But he’s asleep. And he’s got shiny stuff. But even I’m not crazy enough to steal from a freaking dragon! There are pillars and key holes and a central pillar. We know what we gotta do, but doing it in front of a dragon seems like a bad idea.

We take positions, and keys, and begin turning. The pillar in the middle gets all glowy and this portal opens up. I see the dragon’s eyes open. I run. ‘Cause I am not stupid. Shut up! I’m not!

So now we have to chose a sin. Circe wants lust. I get that. Guess we’ll visit lust.

March 5th

I suppose I should describe this for when people find my remains and all that’s left is this journal. So there’s this like, big circular chamber with statues and all that. We can go down these paths signified by the sins of the Runelords. Every single one of them will kill us… for sure.

We choose Envy. Loud booming voice, corridors, broken stuff. Then there’s this room with this glowing rod that is all like crackling and stuff. It’s getting worse, so most of us run away. Not Circe though, no. Stands there. Bang. Now half her magic stuff doesn’t work. Good job, there.

We then go to lust. First there’s this really ornate cathedral like place, but then these Succubi-like chicks start flirting with us. Kinda cool, but their evil. Doc takes one out, meanwhile the others are trying to get Krusk to do a strip show. My eyes! I do not need to see that again!

There’s also this really crazy dude in the room. We think he’s been tortured by these creatures. Also, we’re not getting hungry or anything, so it’s like time isn’t passing here. Kinda odd.

Next up is a room with two stone giants guarding the place. We take ‘em out pretty damn quick. Then there’s the ‘sleeping’ room. What’s with the beds with the straps? Those don’t look comfortable. Circe says I should read the most recent Nolan book if I want to know what those are for. What the heck is she talking about?

Anyway, sitting on a throne is the head Succubi. That’s what I’m calling her, anyway. She seems like a good host. Doc’s not up for fighting these, though, so we don’t get anything out of it yet. We head back to the main chamber, but the portal is now closed. This could be an issue.

Pride is our destination. The hallways are lined with mirrors. I’m so cute with my ears and tail! Oh wait… that’s not a reflection. It’s another me! Two more mes! They… are not friendly. Cute, though.

March 5 - 7th

After the trauma of fighting myself, Circe decides to do the same. It seems a couple of the mirrors are replicating us, so I get all disarmed and smashy. It works and we’re able to proceed on without our own hinderance.

There’s another cathedral with a huge bird in the middle, but it’s an illusion. Of course, trying to convince Doc of this does not work. He eventually accepts that the other guys in the room are trying to kill us, however. In fact, they actually do a pretty good job of that as Krusk is dead and Circe’s an idiot. Well, no change there.

We get Circe less idiot with a scroll, and Krusk less dead with another scroll. Dynith opts to PTM™ us into the room to take on the casters again, this time it works much better and we slice and dice our way to victory and they all turn into… snow? Beyond is a small library where a dead guy is looking into a mirror. He looks like the guys that attacked us. Then I find more of his bodies. Freaky.

Turns out he was cloning himself and may have found a way out. We’ll rest here for the nig… day… standard allotment of rest time.

March 7th

I’m getting a bit tired of this place. Not like tired, tired… just more like I don’t want to be here any more. Oh well… Onto wrath.

We entered the halls of wrath. Usual. Big hall. There’s this golem there, but some pummeling made him less of an issue. Then we move on to a room with circles on the ground. The experts say teleport circles. Seems like a bad idea, but Doc, Dynith and I step inside to…

A room with a bunch of human-things and sin-spawn-things fighting each other, but then they’re like “intruders!” We’re hit with attacks and fireballs, which do clear out the sin-spawn. As we engage, Big Krusk and Circe join in to get burned by the fireballs. Casters prove to be annoying, but we eventually pummel, stab, and blast them out of existence.

June 20

It feels like only yesterday my world was bright and full of light, now instead a wall of white, the sky is gone, colors a memory but I'm not blind. I see clearer then ever before, my world has only grown in such a short time, I guess I should introduce myself I'm Karn Al'hern and someday everyone will know my name, for good or evil time will tell but then time seems to be on my side now more then ever. The massive explosion I saw, robbed me of my eyes and my mother but in its stead I meet a Goddess who gave me a new sight and seemingly power as well, I knew of clerics with some divine gift to heal or smite and it seems my encounter with the Goddess of time has gifted me with some of these powers, as well as a few other tricks I find quite useful for being drafted, me at fifteen and blinded now part of the military tells me all I need to know about how desperate these fools are but then this only works to my advantage. The group I've been put into has some, interesting characters for sure, Doc our new leader seems quite confidant around the city and while he professes to heal, the only thing I've seen him do "healing wise" is try to kill a horse and put a leech on me, the fool. Then there is the muscle I am guessing he used to run with the local underground judging by his breeding and temperament not a bad fellow I am sure and he could be useful given time, Julie while cute and spunky seems to be a bit to chaotic for my taste she may be my age but yet I feel ages beyond where she is now, time will tell if she develops into a hindrance or someone I maybe able to use. Recently Ricky a fool who's like I've yet to meet was moved to the office after a altercation with a different unit some of my best work, the fools mind was to mailable, often julie had here way with him and the last thing I need is a full so trusting to not see what is so clear to me in Julie that she can't be trusted, so instead the gave us a interesting new addition a caster of some sort perhaps to replace the one's we lost its to early to say if I might need be rid of him but for now I shall wait and see, but in the end no one will interfere with my plans.

June 11 (night)

After fighting a bunch of ghouls at the cemetery and looting some treasure, Ricky suggests that we go back and rest for the night. Julie decides to name us, “Team Lightning”.

Back at the base we report to Leroy—he pays us and thanks us for fighting ghouls. Krusk heads to the closest tavern to find out what kind of action the other patrols had seen but, it was mostly fighting fires, and those who had fought ghouls, did not fight as many as Team Lightning.

June 12 (morning)

Krusk wakes up with what he thought was his first hangover but was really some kind of ghoulish fever (penalty of -1 dexterity and -1 constitution).

Team Lightning is on their way back to the cemetery to investigate the hole behind the gazebo. Another party was assigned to them, and this team will guard the hole.

Team Lightning investigates the hole and has to find their way through the labyrinth of tunnels. In order to find their way back, Karn tears pieces of fabric off of his smock and places it in the wall so that we know which passages they had taken. The tunnels are strewn with garbage. During their underground search, they encounter fights, trigger traps, and find some lost souls. Their first fight was against large rats. After the team’s success of this battle in a room littered with bones, Doc notices that the ceiling is covered with bats. Now, the team must continue their search more quietly.

Ricky and Doc are in the lead and they fall into a trap of a pit of spikes. After this, Julie now leads the group while searching for traps along the way. Julie leads us to an open cavern where she can hear people moaning. After traversing another trap (a trench with snakes underneath the garbage), we are in a larger room with 4 tombstones. Ricky and Krusk lift each tombstone, and the first 3 tombstones reveal weak and sick people trapped in a pit. The fourth tombstone revealed a ghoul who tried to grab at Ricky but Julie was able to cut off its hand. However, the howls of pain had called upon more ghouls and a ghast to arrive at the fight. Surprisingly, a swarm of snakes also had to be fought off of Julie. After an arduous battle, our heroes find themselves as escorts to the sick and the weak. With their new found companions, they must traverse their way out of this garbage laden subterranean maze.

On a side note, Krusk was found to have a small note book indicating a list of kills: large rats = 11, ghast = 1, ghoul = 1, snake swarm = 1. It is assumed that this is a list of Krusk’s kills. Why he has this notebook remains a mystery.