Adventure Log - Second Venture Part 1

General Summary

Session 1, 2023-09-09: A barfight of consequence

Present: Kyle (GM), Ric, Steph, Russ, Candy, Rain, Carrick
4 Yondallish 7304
Johnathan Ranzant (Russ) aided some other shepherds in recovering some sheep and they invited him to dinner at the The Jolly Wayfarer, where Firdri Polen (Ric) was cooking and Adonis Pax (Carrick) was serving tables. Johnathan's companions drank too much and started a fight with Adonis (who had spurned one of the shepherd's drunken advances) and some adventuresome patrons who were talking about starting a Foraging Party and going Outside the Great Gate. Pualani (Candy) and Chok Lighthand (Rain) were bystanders in the tavern. The tavernkeeper called for help and Enclave Watchmember Lorali Swiftfoot (Steph) happened to be walking past. She walked in just as Johnathan was disabling the shepherds with his staff, and Chok was stealing a pouch from one of the adventurers. Chok was caught red-handed and returned the pouch along with a profuse apology, and also gave his mark a bracelet (that he had 'found' elsewhere). Chok might have only avoided arrest because he and Lorali grew up in the same orphanage.
Johnathan, Adonis, Firdri, and Pualani began talking with the adventurers about going Outside. One of them had been Outside once before but needed some new companions, and the other was eager to go for the first time. They agreed that there was safety in numbers and the various conversants demonstrated some useful abilities: Firdri, food magic; Pualani, fire magic due to her firefighter occupation; Adonis, agility, stealth, and good looks; Johnathan, healing magic of Pelor and staff fighting. Lorali and Chok then approached and expressed interest; Lorali being a sturdy fighter, and Chok having stealthy and alchemical skills (and really needing money). The adventurers (who were retconned to Ross's and Gretchen's characters and will join in the future) grudgingly agreed that Chok would be a useful addition to the party, and they began planning for their first trip Outside.

Session 2, 2023-09-30: Night of the Tentacle

Present: Kyle (GM), Ric, Steph, Rain, Carrick
14-16 Yondallish 7304
Adonis, Lorali, Chok, and Firdri met at the Warriors' Guild in Northville one spring morning, bought some extra gear in the Grand Cavern, and hiked south across the Enclave to Mudville, where they checked in at Outland Goods and learned from Phillipa Stook that Foraging Parties had successfully brought back a boar carcass. They also learned that ruins have occasionally been found but Foraging Parties are not usually willing to share information about their locations. A teenage girl named Willa guided the party through the hidden causeway through The Marsh to the Great Gate; the guards explained the procedure to reenter the Enclave and let them pass.
The party headed roughly south through the forest, spending the first night near a large rocky hill. Adonis and Chok attempted to hunt a large goatlike animal; Adonis hit it with a sling bullet but Chok's arrow misfired and the animal got away. The party traveled to another hill, where they found a small cave. It contained a room with sooty walls and holes in the ceiling, and a little firewood, indicating someone had been building fires there long ago. One of the walls had 23 tally marks scratched into it. Adonis found an old pouch with 3 round silver pieces inside it, each with a face and some strange writing embossed on it, that nobody could understand. From there the party journeyed toward a clearing that they'd seen from the hilltop; Firdri guessed it was a pond and it turned out to be a large one of about 4 acres. The party made camp for the night at the south end of the pond, near its outlet. Lorali was awakened by a strong slimy tentacle slowly dragging her into the water, but Chok stabbed it, and it let her go.
The next day the party journeyed southward along the east side of the stream that flowed out of the pond. They found a long-abandoned village, with just a few walls and foundations left from stone houses. The party did not have any tools to dig with, so they passed it by. When they stopped for lunch Firdri caught a glimpse of a large black catlike animal with yellow eyes on the opposite side of the stream. Later in the afternoon the stream ran into a smaller pond (about half an acre) with a mostly fallen tree overhanging it. This pond did not have a large outlet, so some water may have been running away underground. From there the party headed eastward through the forest. Adonis was not looking where he was going and fell on his face in a shallow pit with a sandy bottom. Chok jumped in to help him out and they discovered that they were on top of a nest of ants, each several inches long. Some took a few bites out of Chok's legs before Lorali and Firdri could brush them off (they did not get through Adonis's leather armor). Firdri bandaged Chok and they journeyed a safe distance eastward from the ants' nest before stopping for the night.

Session 3, 2023-10-15: Our new friend Grakk

Present: Kyle (GM), Ric, Steph, Rain, Carrick
17-21 Yondallish 7304
The next day Lorali, Firdri, Chok, and Adonis continued some ways to the east. They came upon a large round hole/depression about 50 yards wide, with various plants growing in it. Climbing down, they found a steeply sloping low tunnel in the bottom. The party lowered Firdri on a rope into the tunnel to investigate, but was attacked by rock mites, who looked like boulders until the party started blundering around near them. The party (especially Lorali) killed a few and harvested their rocky hides and a couple of their firey/corrosive stomachs. At the bottom of the tunnel, Fidri saw several of them underground, eating rocks. Lorali and Adonis were chomped and burned by the rock mites but Chok was able to heal them. The party spent the night near the hole.
The next day the party began journeying back toward the Enclave. When making camp that evening an impressively muscular and ugly half-orc approached them, respectfully keeping his hands out and open. He spoke broken Common which he called the 'slave tongue'. Grakk had met another Enclave foraging party before but Firdri was the first halfling he had ever seen. Grakk grew up among other half-orcs, enslaved by orcs, but killed his enslavers and escaped many years ago. Now he enjoys living in the wilderness and hunting (and eating) orcs. While talking around the campfire, an orcish arrow struck the ground near Chok, Grakk disappeared while the party was figuring out what to do. A couple other arrows narrowly missed Chok, but Grakk used his stealth and his twin handmade maces to kill an orcish archer who sought vengeance after Grakk had slain his squadmates recently.
Grakk's efforts to butcher the orc were aided (disconcertingly) by Firdri's Prepare Game spell. Grakk was uninterested in the orc's bow but Chok felt drawn to it, an ordinary looking longbow in excellent condition. It did not look magical to Firdri, but it 'felt right' to Chok even though he is not strong enough to draw a typical longbow. Conversation continued; Grakk mentioned disease upon the orcs that killed many, and was curious where the party had come from although he did not press them for details. Grakk spent the night with the party.
That night Chok had a dream that he was in a tavern with a friendly middle-aged human male bard that he did not know. The bard said that Chok would do well if he took more chances and didn't worry about the consequences. Then the bard put his left hand on the table and started stabbing the table between each of his fingers with his knife. Chok asked the bard if he was a god, and the bard said Chok should switch to water as he'd clearly had enough to drink already. Chok woke well-rested and remembered the dream much more clearly than normal in the morning.
The party wondered if Grakk knew of other ruins, so in the morning he took them to a steep rocky hill with a tower atop high (75 yard) cliffs. It was too difficult to climb without better gear. Grakk wished he had a strong steel knife to replace his own badly worn knife, and Firdri gave him one of his. A little later, Grakk said he hoped they'd meet again, perhaps to trade, and he disappeared into the forest without looking back.
After that the party journeyed back toward the Enclave. After another day they reached the gate.

Session 4, 2023-11-19: Don't lie to the Watch

Present: Kyle (GM), Carrick, Steph, Rain, Ric
21-23 Yondallish 7304
The party was readmitted to the Enclave via the Great Gate. During the debrief with the chief of the Great Gate's guard, Chok and Adonis tried to keep secret that they'd met Grakk (Lorali told the chief everything), and the chief fined Adonis and gave him a lecture about honesty. At Outland Goods Phillipa Stook was disappointed that they weren't a missing foraging party of 3, that had headed eastward from the Great Gate into the mountains, and was about a week overdue. The appraiser at Outland Goods found several jewels in the rock mite poop that sold for $840, plus a bit extra for the sale of hides and meat. The Festival of the Balladeer was happening in the Mudville town square, and the party joined in for ale, food, and dancing even though they were still filthy from a week Outside. They spent the night in a stable due to lack of lodgings.
In Centerville and the Dwarven Catacombs over the next 2 days, they learned about rock mites from Davilla (elderly dwarven rock collector in the Catacombs) as well as from Serentonius Ogden MacPlink, who also gave Chok 2 small vials of strong acid from the rock mite stomach. Some old records existed about rock mites, and they'd been a problem in The Mines before, but nobody living had ever seen one. The party also received 2 chits for loaned items from The Crib in trade for rock mite body plates. They also dropped off a few rock mite body plates with Bart the blacksmith in Centerville (Bart met Chok in Mudville, and Bart also ventures Outside) who was going to see if any armor could be made from them, although they're heavy. Serentonius Ogden MacPlink and Rix (sp.? Chok's gnomish mentor?) also examined Chok's new longbow with Camwyn Tackfitter and found that its weight suddenly increased when carried away from Chok. The bow did not appear magical to anyone and Camwyn suggested having some clerics look at it.
Chok was reunited with his mother in Northville, who remains very ill and was worried about him.
The party decided to return Outside to explore the steep rocky hill with a tower that Grakk showed them. At Outland Goods they were quoted $75 for 150 yards of rope (12.5#), $200 for a block and tackle (10#), and $20 (4#) each for climbing gear for Firdri, Chok, and Lorali (Adonis already had it). Firdri exchanged a chit to borrow a 'bag of holding' (Hideaway spell) that can carry 20# without affecting encumbrance.

Session 5, 2023-12-10: A mildly daring rescue

Present: Kyle (GM), Carrick, Steph, Rain, Ric, Ross
24-26 Yondallish 7304
Chok showed his bow to an elder cleric of Pelor at the Temple of Pelor. The cleric believed the bow was holy but did not know which god had blessed it. He mentioned that others at Garl's Meetinghouse might know more.
After hearing again from Phillipa Stook about her concern for a lost prospecting party (a dwarf and 2 humans) that was several days overdue, the party decided to search for them instead of attempting to climb to the tower on the rocky hill. They also became reacquainted with Grog, a human hunter (played by Ross) who they'd met in the The Jolly Wayfarer back in Session 1.
They left the Enclave and proceeded west along the cliff face. By nightfall it was breaking up into rough hills and Grog found some tracks. In the morning Grog and Adonis took the lead and followed the tracks up a valley and out onto a plateau. After further tracking and climbing they heard some distant shouts which led them to the lost party. A male dwarf and a female human had fallen while attempting to climb, and each of them had broken a leg. A human mage was uninjured and had remained with his comrades. Chok was able to heal them somewhat to make them more fit for travel, but could not heal their legs. Between Firdri's magic and Lorali's brawn the party was able to get the prospectors splinted and out of the mountains.
Upon returning to the Enclave Phillipa Stook was happy to see the lost prospectors and rewarded the party, minus the cost of the gear she'd advanced them.

Session 6, 2024-01-21: Well met, Jef

Present: Kyle (GM), Carrick, Ric, Steph, Rain, Ross
27-29 Yondallish 7304
Since the party already had the climbing gear they needed to investigate the ruined tower, most of them spent the night near the Great Gate and in the morning they set out toward the southeast. There was some heavy rain that day but Grog was able to build a shelter for the partly. That night Lorali heard a large snuffling noise and the sound of a large creature moving through the brush. In the morning they found doglike tracks, but about 5x the size of a normal dog.
By late morning the next day they arrived at the tower. The total height was about 75 feet but the first 30 feet was a fairly easy rubble slope. Grog tackled the climb, and after a couple of hair-raising near-misses he reached the top with some rope to help the others climb up. The ancient tower took up about 1/3 of the area of the hilltop. The stonework was good. The tower was round with one main entrance into a large chamber about 20 yards in diameter with a stairway going up the side of one wall to the next level. It contained some rubble, rusty metal, and pieces of crockery. The second level might have been living quarters but it was also mostly empty. About 1/5 of the ceiling had fallen away but stairs curved up along the wall to the top level; a large ugly winged stone gargoyle was visible on the battlements through the hole in the ceiling. About half of the top level was taken up by branches and rubble that seemed like a rather smelly nest of some large creature. While Grog, Adonis, and Firdri were exploring the top level, Chok climbed up, realized that the gargoyle had changed position, and alerted the others. Grog was already near the gargoyle and was astonished when it turned to face him.
The gargoyle was placid and friendly, spoke slow strangely-accented Common, and mentioned that he had sometimes seen other humans recently, but more often orcish scouts. He had also seen a couple of dwarves come by from the southwest two years ago. He had resided in the tower for 338 years, and it had been deserted when he arrived. He pointed out two chevrons carved into the battlements, pointing southwest and southeast, which might point the way to other towers or structures. He also explained that a large winged lizard-creature lived in the nest, but it was often away hunting. He rummaged in the nest and gave Chok a 3 inch long broken tooth from the creature. The gargoyle asked if they had good food; he could eat most anything, often carrion, but would like something more interesting. Firdri prepared a groundhog that the party had hunted earlier, and the gargoyle popped the entire thing in his mouth and chewed it appreciatively, bones and all.
Adonis continued to talk with the gargoyle while the others were exploring. He asked the gargoyle's name, and he didn't have one, so Adonis suggested 'Jef'. The gargoyle thought about it and decided it would be quite happy to be called Jef from now on.
In the course of exploring the tower Adonis found a few strange silver coins, Firdri found a magical leather armband with a turtle embossed on it, and Chok found a small battered brass telescope that worked rather well (5x magnification) once cleaned.
In the afternoon the party decided to move on toward the southwest to seek another tower and perhaps find the dwarves. As they were starting to descend, Jef called for them to hurry because the lizard was flying back toward the tower. The party quickly rappelled down and took cover under the trees in time to see a large blue scaly creature with two legs and two wings descend into the nest.
The party journeyed southwest for a few miles before stopping for the night. That night they heard some orc scouts moving through the trees. Lorali threw a glowstone and they saw an archer and a swordsman. Lorali charged the orcs and traded blows with the swordsman, who was fierce and skilled, and it was a roughly even match; Lorali might have been killed if the party had not come to her aid, particularly Chok's and Grog's arrows; Firdri's and Adonis's knives couldn't do much against the orcs' armor. The swordsman also dealt Adonis a serious blow. As Firdri closed in on the orcs, a shield of bluish force popped out of his armband. It would have been a medium shield, but for him it was like a tower shield. The party killed the archer and disabled the swordsman, and tied him to a tree hoping to interrogate him. But he did not speak Common, nor they Orcish, and he refused to eat or drink, so in the end they killed him.
The next day the party continued traveling southwest. After an uneventful day they made camp not far from a large pond / small lake.

Session 7, 2024-02-18: Grog has a bad week

Present: Kyle (GM), Carrick, Ric, Steph, Rain, Ross
30-35 Yondallish 7304
At night camping about 100 yards from the pond/lake, Grog heard a splashing noise by the bank. In the morning they found evidence of a large animal having been dragged into the lake and realized they were in the same area where Lorali was grappled by the tentacle in session 2. The party then continued traveling southwestward. In the afternoon they passed on the east side of a lone mountain, finding that it had a very large chunk missing from it near the peak. South of the mountain was a small lake with a stream running out of it southward through some plains, and several square miles of rocky desert beyond the lake, in a valley between the mountain and some hills further to the south. The party camped near the stream where it came close to the forest. That evening everyone felt weak and had terrible nightmares (especially Grog), so in the morning they decided to journey back northeast to find the rock mite hole again and collect more gems.
After a slow and difficult day of travel they had a better night of sleep and everyone felt healthy again. Late the next day, they managed to find the rock mite hole after some backtracking and searching. Firdri went down into the rock mite cave at the bottom of the hole and was unmolested while he collected more droppings. The party broke up the droppings and got 12 rough gems out of them.
Before dawn the next morning by the rock mite hole, Firdri thought he heard a large party of orcs. Fortunately, they turned out to be just a pair of scouts, a swordsman and an archer, like the two encountered in session 6. The archer badly wounded Grog, and the swordsman battled on despite multiple arrow and axe wounds, but the party dispatched them. They took a day of rest to recover so that Chok could heal Grog and Lorali, while Adonis hunted.
The next morning they continued northeast, back toward Jef's tower, in order to get a bearing from it to the southeast where there might be more old buildings. By the afternoon they reached it. Jef was glad to see them, and the huge flying lizard was not there. With some difficulty, Jef carried Firdri to the top of the tower to get the southeast bearing. They gave Jef some jerky that Firdri had somehow managed to ruin, but Jef said it was crunchy and didn't mind in the least.
The next day the party continued to the southeast, having to detour around a swampy area. That night they were attacked by several bloodsucking birds about as big as a fist. Everyone was jabbed at least once, and Lorali accidentally wounded Grog with her ax while trying to scrape birds off of him.

Session 8, 2024-04-27: Gnome away from home

Present: Kyle (GM), Carrick, Ric, Steph, Rain, Ross
36-39 Yondallish 7304
In the morning after walking briefly the party found a gnomish girl, about 10 or 12, hiding in some bushes. She didn't speak Common, only a completely unfamiliar language. She was very dirty but healthy. She was afraid at first but Adonis and Firdri were able to calm her by sharing food and making gestures. She then ran away after seeing Lorali but watched from a distance and came back after she saw that Lorali was behaving civilly. Grog looked for tracks to figure out which direction she came from but didn't find anything. It seemed she wandered away and got lost somehow. The party decided to take her back toward the Enclave, and passed near the swamp in so doing. The girl became excited and ran into the swamp, beckoning her new friends to follow. The mosquitoes and the footing were terrible but after a couple hours they reached a low hill with a crude stone table on top and a few other Gnomes, some with staffs and spears. An older woman saw the group and shouted a command at someone who then brought a steaming basket full of a warm starchy grey substance, which she offered to the party. Firdri purified it although the woman didn't seem to realize he was using magic. He also magically seasoned it while the party and some gnomes were starting to eat it. The old woman seemed to complain at the person who brought the food but continued to eat it anyway. The girl ran around apparently telling other gnomes of her adventures. Presently a male and female gnome arrived who appeared to be her parents. They looked uncertain at first but thanked the party by going around the circle, placing their hands on the newcomer's shoulders, and touching their foreheads to the back of the newcomer's head. Then they sat down and had some food.
After a while an old male gnome with bones in his hair and a variety of pouches on his belt came along with a human forager from the Enclave. Her name was Marya and she had a broken arm. Chok healed her somewhat but her arm remained crippled. Marya said that she'd been out foraging with 2 other friends but they were surprised by a giant with a huge club. They scattered and she fled into the swamp, where she fell and broke her arm. She didn't know what happened to her friends. She had been with the gnomes about a week and thought that she was the first Humans the gnomes had ever seen.
Later in the afternoon some hunters brought a deer carcass and began roasting it. More gnomes arrived and began building a larger fire. Someone who was probably the chief (based on his proud bearing and his bright collar made of feathers) welcomed each of the party by reaching up to their shoulders and looking directly in their eyes. Baskets of fruit and the grey starchy stuff arrived and people ate and sang around the fire. Adonis got into a kind of song-and-dance in a ring with several women and girls. After a while Firdri and Grog fell asleep sitting up and Grog almost rolled into the fire. When the old woman saw this she took the party to a vine ladder near the edge of the hill and had them climb the ladder to a fairly clean elevated room with grass on the floor and a thatch roof to sleep. Marya said they were honored to be given this place to sleep but she couldn't climb the ladder so she went elsewhere. It was barely big enough for the whole party.
Everyone slept well; the mosquitoes were not bad inside the shelter. The human bard returned to Chok's dreams, drinking with Chok and many gnomes and expressing approval of the gnomes and their community. Firdri woke first and cooked some kind of eggs with a leathery shell that some gnomes gave to him. The gnomes tried the cooked eggs but seemed to prefer them raw. After the rest of the party awakened and ate, Marya arrived with 2 young adult gnomes with spears to guide them out of the swamp. On the journey the guides noticed the party's difficulty with mosquitoes and took them to a pool where they rubbed clay all over themselves, which helped somewhat. Upon reaching the forest the guides disappeared back into the swamp.
The journey back to the Enclave was uneventful. The captain on duty at the Great Gate told Marva that one of her friends had returned to Woolville, so Marya decided to go there. She gave the party her address in Centerville, though, and told them they were welcome anytime. Phillipa Stook at Outland Goods said she'd have their gems appraised the next time they came by. Chok decided to go see his mentor Rif at the University to tell him about the gnomes. The others returned to Northville, arriving in time for the Ceremony of the Quickening for Yondalla the next day.

Session 9, 2024-05-11: Ceremony of the Quickening

Present: Kyle (GM), Carrick, Ric, Steph, Ross
39 Yondallish - 5 Latherion 7304
Upon returning to Northville, Chok learned that his mother had been ill while he was away and he went to see her. Firdri's parents welcomed him back and were especially happy that he'd returned in time for the Ceremony of the Quickening. They invited the rest of the party to a picnic the next day after the ceremony. Adonis's parents were happy to see him too.
In the morning halflings and others paraded through Northville toward the Church of Yondalla, with singing and flowers and snacks. Small groups went into the church in turn for blessings, and then headed home for a meal. Many had picnics outside, Firdri's folks among them with a wheelbarrow full of food, joined by Adonis, Grog, and Lorali. A man named Thurm dropped by who knew Firdri and asked how his trip was and if it was profitable. Fidri owes money to Thurm's employer, but he didn't let on. Another guard noticed Lorali and told her that dwarves had been busy closing old portholes/tunnels and opening new ones around the Great Gate, because the ancient illusions covering some of the portholes had decayed.
Adonis left the picnic early to get to work at The Jolly Wayfarer, which was busy due to the festival. Grog left to replenish his arrows, and Lorali checked in with the Enclave Watch. They were interested in getting intelligence about the 'giant' that Marya saw and offered to pay her if she could get it. Lorali also checked Bart's smithy in Centerville to see how he was getting on with making armor out of the rock mite plates. He said it was tricky and they were still working on it when they had time between various orders from farmers and the Watch. In the evening Lorali checked in on Chok and his mother. She was sleeping but Chok said they'd gotten her some medicine from the temple. She'd fallen and hit her head and was bruised. Chok had been making a crude carving of a mask, one side happy, one side angry/sad, to pass the time while his mother was sleeping.
The next day Lorali, Firdri, Adonis, and Grog went back to Outland Goods in Mudville to check the appraisal of the gems. One of them was excellent powerstone material and fetched a particularly high price, the total was $1200 for the lot. Lorali met a half-orc forager named Ferg who had helped discover abandoned orcish tunnels in the mountains east of the Spider Woods. He said they were eerily quiet with a lot of orc bones and abandoned equipment, some of which they brought back on a mule and made some decent money. One of his comrades had gotten sick by touching some bad fungus in the tunnels, but he recovered.
The party then decided to seek out Marya to find out more about the 'giant'. They found her in Woolville at the modest home of her comrade Crim, a shepherd who had also fled the 'giant'. He didn't have much more to offer since he fled in fear and didn't look back, making his way toward the Great Gate and hoping his friends would do the same. Marya's arm was being healed by clerics but it would probably take a few weeks. They had not heard from their missing friend Brunton. Crim said he'd had enough of adventuring but Marya thought she might try it again.
The party then headed back to Northville for the night. Lorali checked on Chok and his mother again. She was doing better, and the party wanted to head out to look for the 'giant', but Chok wanted to wait a day to see how she did. Everyone took care of work etc. duties for the day, after which she thought she'd be OK for a while with help from her neighbors. So the party headed out. Chok got delayed talking with Rif for a while about the gnomes at the University; he wanted to send some Enclave Gnomes there to do some research.
After a night spent in the forest the party reached Jef's tower. Jef was glad to see them and the wyvern had been gone for about a week. But Jef had not seen any giants, nor any humanoid for several weeks. Grog looked for tracks around the perimeter of the swamp all afternoon and finally found one; further scouting led them to a 9' tall stocky powerful humanoid with patchy matted hair and a huge club, eating a carcass of some kind. The party waited until night and Firdri used his magic to cover its lower legs with earth and then turn the earth to bronze (which would last for a day). Then they waited until it woke up. Grog and Chok hunted for food which Adonis brought to it, and he tried to talk to it. It seemed like it might be speaking a language, but nobody could understand it. It tried repeatedly to stand up but it could not because the bronze was so heavy, but it stayed reasonably content while the party brought it food. Firdri tried giving it a glowstone but it didn't seem to like the light and threw it away. In the evening the spell wore off and it shook its feet free from the earth, stood up, picked up its club, looked around at the party, and then shambled off. Firdri had made some drawings to bring back to the Enclave. The party moved off a little way and made camp. Chok had had a couple bad nights of sleep, with nightmares the previous night, and crashed almost immediately.

Session 10, 2024-05-26: Spectre of doom

Present: Kyle (GM), Carrick, Ric, Steph, Ross, Rain
6-8 Latherion 7304
That night the party had another fight with bloodsucking birds, who injured several of the group. The next morning the party skirted the northwestern and western edges of the swamp again, getting back on track for their southeast bearing from Jef's tower to find what it had been pointing to. The next evening Grakk tried to sneak up on them but Grog noticed something and went to investigate. He was surprised to find such a tough and ugly barbarian being friendly, and the others reassured Grog that Grakk was OK (though Grog was pretty sure he could have taken Grakk). Grakk was impressed by the party capturing an ogre, saying that he would never fight one and generally avoids them. Grog also gave the party a small pouch that belonged to someone who had been eaten by an ogre; he said there wasn't much left of him beyond a few pieces of bone. It contained a few Enclave coins and a cheap ring. Grakk was interested in the small wooden mask that Chok was carving and offered to help, but Chok politely refused.
Early in the morning, before most of the party awakened, Grakk left the party briefly and came back with some rabbits for breakfast. He confirmed that there was an old tower in the direction the party was heading. He walked with the party for the morning but left them after that. Toward the end of the day the party reached a wide grassy hill with what was left of a tower; it resembled Jef's tower but only the ground level with its ceiling was intact. Rubble from the rest of the tower was on the ground. There was a doorway but no door remained. Adonis found a pendant that was a partly melted metal disc with a cracked gem set in it. The party decided to camp inside the tower for the night, hopefully to avoid more bloodsucking birds. They found some more chevrons on this tower: one pointing back northwest towards Jef's tower, one pointing due west, and another pointing southeast.
That night Chok awakened from a threatening dream and felt he needed to get to a weapon. Lorali was on watch. Chok grabbed his knife. A floating ghostly figure wrapped in a cloak, and with a glowing face, appeared with a bonechilling laugh. Lorali raised the alarm and the rest of the party was terrified. Grog was especially affected, and began to retch and retreat. Lorali threw an ax but it passed right through the creature. Chok and Adonis tried their knives but they also had no effect. Firdri's shield activated and Firdri retreated. Chok picked up Lorali's thrown ax, and as he did so he felt power move from himself into the ax. He clumsily attempted to strike the wraith with it, but missed, so he handed it off to Lorali. She dealt the wraith several powerful blows that still went through it, but did seem to harm it. The wraith struck both Chok and Lorali; the rest of the party retreated. Finally Lorali dealt it another mighty blow and it dissipated. Chok and Lorali felt weaker and clumsier than before (-1 each on ST, DX, and HT). Chok did his best to heal their wounds and the party moved camp outside away from the tower. In the morning Chok and Lorali still felt weak and clumsy.
Adventure Log - Second Venture Part 2

Report Date

09 Sep 2023