Dahlia Di Mare
Dahlia Di Mare
Dahlia came into the world with her twin brother Tyrian. Neither know who is actually the oldest as their mother always changed her story. Dahlia likes to think she is the younger one.
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
Tall and Slender
Mental characteristics
Gender Identity
Female
Sexuality
Heterosexual
Personality Characteristics
Motivation
Would like to own her own ship one day which will also then double as a gambling business. For now, she needs to buy a ship to pay the handsome Captain Silver Fox back, whose ship she unwittingly sank to the bottom of the sea.
Savvies & Ineptitudes
Can sail a ship
Likes & Dislikes
Dahlia loves 5 things in this world.
1. Her twin brother
2. Gambling
3. The Ocean
4. Adventure
5. Handsome Men
1. Her twin brother
2. Gambling
3. The Ocean
4. Adventure
5. Handsome Men
Vices & Personality flaws
Gambling
Hygiene
Keeps her appearance neat and tidy
Social
Family Ties
Twin Brother Tyrian
Religious Views
Her chosen God is Hallend
Social Aptitude
Dahlia is flirty with men who she finds handsome. She exudes confidence and would prefer not to appear intimidating. If she does need to be, she can be quite fierce.
Relationships
History
Tyrian and Dahlia came into the world together. Who ever is older, no one knows as their mother always changed the story.
Commonalities & Shared Interests
games of chance
Dahlia appears to be harmless due to being female and slender but she knows how to use her rapiers.
Character Location
Alignment
Chaotic Neutral
Age
19 (Originally 23)
Birthplace
Cloudy Bay
Spouses
Siblings
Tyrian Di Mare
(Twin Brother)
Children
Current Residence
Alisar
Gender
Female
Eyes
Light brown
Hair
Long, straight and light brown
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Light tan
Height
5'10
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Finding a way out of the Maze
* Sounds from behind Tyrian, Struth and Dahlia turned out to be more of the crystal beings materialising.
* Climbing over the huge ape, they quickly joined the rest of the party. Tyrian and Dahlia picked up Tyrone while the rest ran ahead.
* Moving into some ruins, Dahlia fed Tyrone the blue crystal dust she had and this did cause him to come back to like but not the way she thought he would. Tyrone came back and started growing crystals out of him and turned on the twins.
* While fighting Tyrone, the 2 crystal demons caught up and joined the fight.
* Mal, Struth and Petros forged ahead to find a way out of the maze. Mal dispatched most enemies while others fought each other with some spellcasting from Petros.
* Dahlia dispatched Tyrone but was almost overcome by one of the crystal beings. She was able to hightail it out of the fight along with her brother. Some of the creatures that had been enchanted by Petros had quickly joined the fight. He had also come back for the twins.
* Petros was able to dimension door the three of them out of the fight and healed them a little.
* At the exit of the maze, they caught up with Struth and Mal to find that they all could see a different landscape.
Into the Maze
* The group left town after killing the guards. They decided it was best that they just leave. Turning back to look once more at the town, Dahlia saw a crystal being attacking the town. She briefly mentioned it then had to persuade Mal that it was best just to leave as the town was full of Elder Brotherhood who deserved whatever was coming.
* After some days of travel, they came across a gypsy encampment at the base of the mountain. The gypsy's invited the party to stay the night and to partake of their food. They told stories of the animals in the area who were now much larger in size. It had started a few days ago, around the same time that they had left town.
* Alf had run off and came back with blood on him, that was not his. He would not divulge who's blood it was but he confirmed that there definitely were large animals in the area. They all drank and ate, then went to bed.
* The next morning, breakfast was shared with the gypsy's before the party entered the mountain entrance. Not very long after, they came upon a group of rats which Dahlia quickly dispatched.
* Coming to an area with an exit to the north and a blocked eastern exit, Ald scurried through the cactus that was blocking the eastern path. He came back shortly after to advise that there were red, blue and green crystals and some giant stone statues.
* It was decided that Dahlia and Tyrone go and check it out. Dahlia wanted to see what the green crystal would do. Dahlia hacked her way through while the rest of the party stayed back to keep watch.
* The area was filled with crystals, which Dahlia was able to deftly manoeuvre around. Tyrone wasn't as graceful and touched the blue crystal which did make him younger. He looked to Dahlia to ask what had happened and she explained. He then asked what would happen if he touched the green one and Dahlia advised that they would find out. With this, Tyrone touched one of the green crystals which damaged him with lightning damage but at the same time did increase his intellect. Dahlia told him to touch the blue crystal but only for a few seconds and he was able to heal himself from the damage that had just been caused.
* Tyrone felt great and realised that his connection to Tyrian was now gone. He wanted a weapon that Dahlia provided to him. Dahlia also touched the green crystal and felt instantly smarter.
* A group of giant crabs then came across the rest of the party and they were able to kill them off. One of them had burrowed its way to where Dahlia was and she was able to kill it.
* Dahlia continued around and found an abandoned ruined house, which was empty. Through the window, she could see some large badger's feasting on the large worms that they were digging up. The rest of the party did catch up to Dahlia.
* Exiting the house, Dahlia went to chip some of the green crystal and then collected it. Deciding to see what would happen if the crystal's touched, she put the blue and green crystal together. This caused a crystal being to be born which was not happy with Dahlia.
* At the same time, a giant ape came running into the fray. Struth, Tyrone and Mal fought with the ape while Dahlia and Tyrian fought with the crystal being. Petros cast some spells at the crystal being and did buff some of the party members.
* The party were able to kill the ape and crystal being but did lose Tyrone in the fight.
Finding our stuff
* Petros faced the cloaked figure on his own. The figure had called upon back up to take care of the other party members. Petros summoned a tiger to help with the fight. Together they were able to take on the figure. Petros retrieved some of the party's stuff.
* Seeing Petros disappear, Dahlia and Tyrone searched the room to no avail. No answer when they called out either. Going back downstairs, they could hear the fight going onto upstairs. Walking into the main room, Dahlia heard the end of the battle and then saw blood trickling through the floor boards from above.
* Struth in this time, searched the guards bodies and by the time Petros messaged telepathically to let everyone know about the guards, had disabled the door. He entered the main room with everyone else.
* The back up arrived and demanded that the party come out. Petros disguised himself as the mage from upstairs. Mal summoned a hippogriff.
* The hippogriff walked outside where it was immediately attacked. Alf advised that the party should fight. Dahlia took his advice and exited the building to find 5 guards.
* An owl appeared to attack one of the guards and flew past it.
* The group managed to defeat the guards with Petros turning one of the guards to assist with the fight.
* Mal turned into a tree as part of a nervous twitch.
Getting our stuff back
* Petros cast 'locate object' on his lute and then dimension door-ed everyone towards the closest spot he knew.
* The party got transported close to the building where the items were. Luckily the 2 guards were too tired to notice the party appear.
* Tyrian tried to bluff his way in by saying we were delivering some items but one of the guards said that we had to wait while he checked with his superior. The guard went to the south of the building and around the corner.
* Dahlia had moved towards the stairs at this stage and shortly after the other guard came back as Dahlia made her way up. The guard at the stairs responded with that she had to go back unless she knew the password. The other guard informed the party that there was no delivery to be expected.
* Dahlia said "Eat Steel" and drew her weapon, quickly dispatching the two guards with a little help from Tyrone. Struth had left to look around the other side.
* They disrobed the guards and Tyrian & Tyrone put the outfits on to stand guard. Struth came back to say there was another door. Taking the dead guards around, they tried the keys in this door and unlocked the door.
* Dumping the bodies inside, Struth tried to pick the lock on the inside door but was not able to. Dahlia searched the room then became intrigued by the glass balls on pedestals. She touched the blue one and this unlocked the door for her.
* Dahlia went through the door and it locked behind her. Struth figured out what happened and did the same thing, getting Petros to stay behind to let them back out.
* They found a pile of things in the corner and went through it. They were able to find everything but their garments * armour.
* Struth left while Dahlia investigated the next room. There were stairs leading up, one red set and the other blue.
* Outside, 2 more guards had come to take the next watch and a fight ensued between Tyrian & Tyrone and the guards. They were dispatched and the bodies brought into the small room where Petros was waiting.
* Dahlia quickly went down one set of stairs (in the main room) and it was too dark to see but she could hear growling & chains. She left to go back up to the main room.
* Petros wanted to find his other things and came into the room with Dahlia. Tyrone followed.
* They went up the blue stairs together and could see a glyph on the floor. There was also a table in the middle of the room.
* Petros could sense his belt moving around the room but they couldn't see anything. He cast 'dispel magic'. This caused the glyph to change from red to blue.
* Dahlia stepped out in the hopes of 'catching' the invisible person but failed. She told Petros that there was nothing.
* Petros stepped past the glyph and into the room then promptly disappeared from Dahlia & Tyrone's view.
* Petros found that he was alone with the person who was wearing his belt. The humanoid was pacing the room in deep thought.
The Escape
* Dahlia and Struth, with the aid of Alf, were able to get Tyrone back out of the pit he fell in. They used the same rope that they had used to cross the gap.
* Once back out, Dahlia took the rope and they caught up to the rest of the group.
* Making their way back to Mal, he advised that he had communed with nature and that there were 2 ways out. 1 was a windy longer path and the other more direct, but blocked by orcs.
* They continued around the path, taking care not to misstep. Struth out in the lead, then Mal, Petros, Dahlia, Tyrone and Tyrian. Struth and Mal came up to an orc, which Struth was able to fling into the abyss. When they came to a second orc, Mal took care of it.
* Around the bend, they came to an opening and straight into the path of an orc. Mal moved out of the way to allow Struth to attack. Petros strummed a tune to help Struth out. Dahlia, Tyrone and Tyrian could not do anything as they were at the back and the path was only single file.
* With the orc killed, Mal moved back further to allow Struth to pass the opening as they could hear more orcs inside. They voiced that it would be best for the fighters to come upfront. Petros also moved away so that Dahlia could come in. Dahlia was able to take out the remaining 2 orcs with no issue. The party decided it was best if she were to led the party.
* Searching the room, Dahlia was able to find some things of use. She also ordered that Tyrone was fitted with armour and a weapon. They would teach him how to fight as he was Tyrian's clone so could prove to be useful.
* Struth made a fire to make it look like the orcs were still in the room.
* Moving to the other entry, Dahlia could hear the flapping of wings and looked straight out into the eyes of a young dragon. They stared at each other for a few seconds and then Dahlia moved back into the room. She warned the party.
* Petros cast Charm Monster but failed which then caused the dragon to attack the party. It cast lightning into the room, which struck all within.
* Dahlia moved to the entry and threw the javelin into the dragon. Tyrone tried to follow suit but his javelin flew wide. He then ran back to the other side to collect more javelins. Mal ran out of the first entry with the intention of running around to help flank the dragon.
* Petros cast Summon Creatures and summoned 2 griffins which attacked the dragon.
* Struth slid into the shadows and moved out of the cave, using the dragon's distraction to his advantage.
* Seeing that the dragon was indeed distracted, Dahlia moved out of the cave and past a hidden Struth. Tyrian told Tyrone to hurry up and follow then moved out as well.
* Petros decided to cast another spell and summoned 3 fiendish bats, who joined the battle against the dragon. He then cast invisibility and moved out of the cave.
* Mal continued to ran around, in the hopes of getting back to the other side as quickly as he could.
* Dahlia was able to reach the door to the exit and walked into a mausoleum. It was snowing and night time. The bars/door was locked.
* Petros cast another spell on the dragon, which held it so it was unable to fly. It plummeted into the abyss and the creatures all followed it to continue attacking it.
* Struth came into the room, followed by Tyrian and Petros. Ransacking the crypt, they were able to find some iron nails and sewing needles which Struth used to open the door. It did require some effort though.
* Dahlia went to make sure that Tyrone was ok and at this point, they could hear the dragon's last screech before it fell silent.
* They all left the crypt and walked into the moonlit night to find that they were now in a cemetary.
Up the stairs
* Our party started up the stairs until we came across a 15m gap. There was a side tunnel.
* Alf, at Dahlia's enquiry, went into the tunnel to explore. There were some items (weapons and armour), a yellow crystal and a big mushroom. He also found a rope that he was able to drag out and climb to the other side with. He threw the end with bones tied to it, over to Struth so he could then tie this up so everybody could cross.
* Mal decided to go into the tunnel after some of the items Alf mentioned were there. He provided Dahlia with a scimitar and took a shield & armour for himself.
* Dahlia crossed first followed by Mal. Stuth then the rest followed shortly.
* Continuing up the stairs, the group found themselves the targets of some unseen archers. Struth got hit then used the darkness to hide. Mal ran ahead to escape. Tyrian got hit as well.
* Upon examination of the arrow, Tyrian was able to deduce that the archers were orcs. Dahlia, who knew how to speak Orc, bluffed for them to stop shooting at the party. She was able to convince them that the party were fellow orcs. They shouted back that they were sorry and that dinner would be ready soon.
* Up ahead, Mal ran into an orc and a battle took place. With the aide of Struth, they were able to defeat the Orc.
* Tyrian send Tyrone back to get some shields while he took some of the new crystal and rubbed it into his wound. This caused him pain and the wound to be cauterised. The wound caused veins to come out in the shape of a tree.
* Mal looted the orc and gave the armour to Tyrian while Struth took the orc's money. Mal kept the 2 healing potions he found.
* Tyrone was able to find some shields and was coming back out to return to the group. He missed the rope and fell into the abyss. Luckily even though it was a big drop that he only took minimal damage.
Mining Away
* Dahlia almost got into a fight with the half-orc guard but Tyrian was able to placate the guard. Mal had attempted to but failed.
* They ate their food and then went back into the mines for another day of mining.
* The beholder and a guard were chatting and decided to put a little fear into the workers. The beholder was going to kill some random people.
* The beholder killed 2 workers before Dahlia piped up that it was not necessary anymore. The guard spoke with the beholder but the beholder still decided to kill another.
* Tyrian decided to make a move for the guard and use him as a shield against the beholder. The beholder put both the guard and Tyrian to sleep. Dahlia threw her pickaxe at the beholder and it deflected it with one of its eyes.
* Dahlia ran over to Tyrian fearing he was dead. Three guards also came over due to the commotion. One of them pushed Dahlia out of the way and then moved the prone guard. He then chopped Tyrian's arm off as punishment.
* Mal ran over and cast a healing spell on Tyrian's arm, closing the wound. Dahlia kicked Tyrian's arm into the crystal.
* Tyrian came to and was surprised he had no arm. He was about to strike the guard but then got curious when Dahlia mentioned that his arm was now on the crystal. He looked over then slid down as he wanted to reattach it.
* A small lump had begun to grow on the stump of his arm and also on his shoulder where the arm used to be. It looked to be re-growing.
* The guard ordered Tyrian out of the crystal but Tyrian argued that he would not until his arm was reattached. The guard took his rope and formed a lasso, which he threw around Tyrian's neck and began to pull him out himself while choking him.
* Struth came up behind the guard and sneak attacked him. He was able to kill the guard without further issue.
* Dahlia ran over to the other remaining guard (as one of them had already walked away) and killed him.
* Struth jumped down to the crystal as Tyrian had yelled that he found a small tunnel. Mal and Dahlia followed shortly after.
* Struth & Mal found another tunnel which they went down while Dahlia went down the first. Tyrian continued to stand with the crystal as he wanted his arm to regenerate. Also his other arm had began to form a body.
* The two tunnels joined back up together in a Y shape. Dahlia went ahead and then called Struth as it was too dark to see. Mal stayed behind to convince Tyrian to come into the tunnel.
* Struth was able to see that there was some sort of crystal cavern at the end of the tunnel. The crystals did not glow like the one they were mining.
* Tyrian would not budge until his arm was completely regenerated and the body on the arm also fully regenerated. Mal cast some healing spells on Tyrian and the clone which hastened the regeneration. Once the clone was fully formed and Tyrian had his arm back, they all moved back into the tunnel so Mal could cast an alarm.
* The clone was named Tyrone and Tyrian began to try an teach it how to speak.
* Alf the weasel came down and after some small chat with Dahlia, went off to get a light source and some food. He had been exploring what he could of the tunnel he had found.
* The cavern had a ledge formed around the circular chamber but there were sections were the ledge was missing.
* They waited until Alf came back with a lantern and some food. Dahlia climbed across to Alf as she could now see the chamber properly. Mal then Struth followed. Petros stayed with Tyrian & Tyrone.
* Dahlia went down one of the tunnels (not the one that Alf had come from) and found that it circled back into the room. There was a water source close by and it did have organic material but also faeces.
* Dahlia threw Alf across the gap so he could check the last tunnel. He broke his arm on the way down. Dahlia was concerned but Alf moved up into the tunnel. Dahlia was just able to hear him stop, some muttering and then he continued on. After a few minutes, he came back walking normally and told her it looked to be the way out.
* Dahlia climbed across with some slight mishaps but she made it across with the help of Alf at the last bit. Hugging him, she kissed him on the head. Alf told her he loved her which she also repeated back.
* Tyrian decided to cross with Tyrone. They also made it across with some mishaps and help from Dahlia.
* Petros called a griffon into existence to carry him across. He was flown to the ceiling where he found a white crystal which he was able to get by shuttering the crystals around it. It did serve as a stopper to some lava which started to fill the cavern.
* Struth & Mal sling-shot themselves across with each other's help.
* Walking up the tunnel, they came to some stairs which they decided to make camp at the base to sleep before continuing.
* Mal & Struth scouted ahead and found a room at the top of the stairs. They were forms in the room which they left to be dealt with later.
* Tyrian & Petros went to sleep and Dahlia took first watch with Tyrone. Tyrone, by this stage, was able to hold a full conversation. He could hear a voice in his head but wasn't sure what it was saying. Dahlia had been thinking of getting him to take the crystal but decided she would do it. She grinded some up and he asked what she intended. Once she told him, he wanted to also partake.
* He took it first and started to age in front of Dahlia's eyes. She aged to about 40. This stopped Dahlia from taking hers. The voice in his head was now clear and was found to be that of Tyrian's. They had a telepathic connection. He needed to sleep so curled up beside Tyrian.
* Struth & Mal came back then went to sleep after some conversation about Tyrone. Dahlia woke Struth up through the night to take the next watch.
* They all slept soundly and the next morning Dahlia had to explain what had happened with Tyrone to Tyrian. Tyrian then discussed with Tyrone about their telepathic connection.
Morland Mines
* Mal sold Lewie's head for 5k to a bounty hunter at The Red Dragon Inn.
* The group decide to move on from the town in the morning.
* During the night, the group get captured while they are sleeping. (all failed listen and fortitude checks)
* The group wake up underground in a room with a half-orc guard.
* The group find out that the Elder Brotherhood have captured them and are now using them to mine in the mines.
* There are 22 guards in total.
* The group are allowed to eat before they have to work. Everyone gets gruel and an ale.
* Alf the weasel has made it down and is hiding in a storage room.
* They finish eating and are made to start work.
* They are carted to the mining area by 2 gollum-looking creatures. The creatures are very focused on getting us to our destination.
* There are several orcs, half orcs and dwarven sentry. There is also a beholder.
* The group start to work on mining the brain matter. Dahlia pockets some of the crystal.
* They finish a day's work and then head back to the common eating room. They have their meals and gather information.
* Some believe that they will be freed once they complete their debt. Others know they are slaves.
* The group find out that their belongings are in a crate at the market, waiting to be sold. Those that fulfil their 'debt' are moved to another section. There are many sections underground. The beholder is the one who knows the layout of the caverns.
Morland
* A man in the tavern was busy writing in a book. He was unkempt and scruffy. Tyrian's interest was piqued enough to want to know what was in the book.
* A plan was formulated to spill ale into the man's lap as a distraction while Petros would grab the book. Dahlia and Tyrian went over and Dahlia tripped, causing her ale to go flying into the man's lap. This caused him to fly into a rage and flip the table.
* Tyrian was able to calm him down and the man took interest in Tyrian. They went up to the room together after some discussion.
* Dahlia sat back at the table while Petros retrieved the book. The book contained descriptions of the people in the tavern and most had ticks next to them. All of our party did with exception of Mal.
* It was decided not to kill the man (Carlos) so Tyrian entertained him for a little while then came back down to the table to finish breakfast.
* Struth at this stage needed to go and meet Conrad so Dahlia decided to go with him. They entered the store to be met with a ringing bell.
* Struth negotiated the sale of some items that he needed to be rid of. He also bought some things in the process. So did Dahlia.
* Petros alluded to Tyrian that the mines gave him the heebie geebies due to all the magic he had detected
* Tyrian was determined to eat everything on the menu while Petros regaled the tale of how he met Mal.
* Struth and Dahlia went back to the Red Dragon Inn. They joined the group again. Carlos came back down wearing Mal's clothes and Tyrian convinced him to get us good positions in the mines. He went to the barkeep and demanded that we be up front and centre.
* We then left the tavern to go to the markets to shop and browse then headed back to the tavern close to 4pm.
* 4pm.. A dark hooded figure enters in the tavern
A Clean Slate
* On the road to the town of Morland, our party met a caravan with a monk named Lothar driving. He was transporting ale to a town in the mountains.
* Lothar told us that the town had become prosperous due to a mining boom. There were ores, minerals and harvesting of a dead celestial brain to be had.
* Lothar advised to mention his name at the Red Dragon Inn.
* Entering Morland, we found that the town was divided in two as there was a huge mining operation in the middle. There was Morland and Morland East. The Elder Brotherhood was running the operation.
* Our party headed for the Red Dragon Inn and got free accommodation for the night in exchange for Petros' performance. Petros earned 110gp in tips from his bardic performance.
* Struth cased the room and was able to gather information about a lady named Sylvia. A meeting was arranged between the two to discuss the offloading of goods.
* Mal continued to be suspicious of the party and followed along quietly.
* Dahlia overhead conversation at a table with miners that one miner had mined a large part of the brain. Once sold, this would be enough to buy his freedom but most like he would be swindled of his treasure by the brotherhood and end up with nothing.
* While eating dinner, a man came in and informed everyone that there was an accident at the mines. This resulted in 5 deaths. He began to say it was foul play but changed mid-sentence to that there was a cave-in.
* Following the man back out, we watched the bodies be brought up and then hauled away to a building.
* Back at the Red Dragon, the rest of the night went well with no further event.
* The next morning, coming down for breakfast, there was a man dressed in the Elder Brotherhood garb talking with Lenny the bar owner. Dahlia listened into their conversation to learn that 5 able people were needed to work in the mine.
* Struth was approached by a beautiful well-dressed lady. She introduced herself as Sylvia and they moved to another table to discuss business. Another meet up was arranged with another person.
* At this stage. Lenny motioned for Dahlia to come over and proposed that our group should go and work in the mines to make a fortune. He needed an answer by nightfall.
* Dahlia put the idea to the group and it was agreed that we wait to see what Struth learned before a decision was made.
Lewie & Co
The sun began to rise above the treeline as I opened my eyes to a beautiful blue sky. Sitting up, I stretched my arms above my head and looked around the camp. I could see that my companions were still asleep with exception of Tyrian who was up and making breakfast. Getting up, I walked over to Mal to check on him and could see that he was still sleeping. Sitting down at the dying fire, I grabbed some bacon for myself and Alf while we had a conversation about what we should do with Mal. We could either leave him as is or untie him to see what would happen. We agreed that it could go either way with Mal. Grabbing some more bacon, I went back over to Mal and waved it under his nose to see if it would rouse him but it had no effect. Walking over to the Petros and Struth, I could see that they were about to wake. I shook the bacon at them and asked if they wanted any which they both agreed to. I grabbed the pan for them and handed them some bacon.
Sitting back down to finish breakfast, we conversed about what we should do with Mal. It was agreed to wake him and ask some questions to verify whether we should untie him or not. Struth got up, walked over to Mal, shoved him with his foot and got a groan from Mal.
"Leave me alone!" Mal tried to roll over but struggled as he was tied. He opened his eyes, "What do you want? Let me go!"
Struth shook his head, "We have some questions for you first."
"I want breakfast! Untie me!"
"I can do one of those things," Struth walked over to the pan and brought some bacon over, he put it into Mal's open mouth. He fed him a few pieces then pulled him up to his knees. He walked back to the fire and looked at Petros, "All yours." Petros got up to question Mal as to how he was feeling and if he remembered anything from the night before. Mal shook his head and let us know that he had some memory but it was hazy as well. He remembered wanting to kill us all with exception of Petros. He then asked where Mary was. I pointed over to the wax figure of Mary. She was melted but her outline was still there. I could see that Mal wanted to react but he bit his lip.
"Please untie me.. it is very uncomfortable."
Petros looked at the party and we all nodded so he untied Mal. Mal then got up and sat down by the fire. We sat in silence for a while then broke camp. We continued towards the road and made it within the day. We continued until the sun was dipping below the horizon and luckily found a campsite shortly after. By the time we were set up, it was dark. Shortly after, a wagon could be heard rolling up the path and entered the campsite.
"Ahh.. hello again. What luck that we should meet again." Looking up, I saw Lewie Thwart steering the wagon and Eijkman sitting next to him. They were the drug dealers we had sold the "Fallen Star" to. They explained that they had sold all the product and made so much money from it. They then proceeded to tell us that the city of Alisar was now in ruins as the burned Library sunk into the ground, opening it up to release these dark creatures who took over along with some back hooded figures. Sounded like the Elder Brotherhood got the upper hand. Lewie asked if they could join our camp for the night as he hopped down from the wagon. No one disagreed as he sat down by the fire. He pulled out some wine and offered it around as happily sipped from it.
Mal and Petros got up to talk alone than when they came back, Tyrian asked Lewie where he was headed and we found he was also headed to Morphus. Lewie then suggested that we should travel together for safety. Tyrian questioned Lewie further while Struth went over to inspect under the wagon. This seemed to put Lewie on edge a little but he didn't make any move to stop Struth as Struth told the party he wanted to make sure that the wagon was in good working order. Tyrian got a bit more forceful and wanted to know his intentions while pulling out his dagger. He aimed it at Lewie which Lewie reacted to by grinning and telling him what the exact nature of his business was and pushing the dagger away. He then pulled out a few vials, which I had seen before and offered them to the party which Mal took one and then at my brother's request, took a second vial. Mal then got up to talk to Eijkman. Lewie lifted the vial to his mouth and then took the elixir. His eyes glazed over and he then fell back from the log he was sitting on. His walking staff rolled to the side of him. Tyrian went over to Lewie and put his rapier against Lewie's throat as he looted him. He then looked to the party to see if anyone would stop him from killing Lewie. Eijkman did pipe up but did not stop him as he would benefit from Lewie's death. Tyrian and Eijkman came to an agreement that the wagon would be burnt but not before Eijkman took some of his possessions from the wagon. He was also going to get half of what was on Lewie's body and the other part we keep as payment to keep us quiet. He also whispered to Tyrian. Tyrian looked over to where Eijkman pointed to the staff as Struth had come over to pick it up. Struth seemed to gain some colour and then quickly dropped the staff again. I went over to pick it up to examine it. The gem at the top of the staff was part of the Fallen Star. I did not feel anything but I knew it had affected Struth. Eijkman packed one of the two horses then cut them loose. He then set the wagon on fire as he hopped onto the horse and rode off into the night.
Struth had gone to pick up the headless body of Lewie, which Mal had decided to behead to cash in on Lewie's bounty when he could, to throw into the fire. I walked over and touched Struth on the back with the staff. He reacted by jerking and then telling me to get the staff away from him. I asked him what happened and did it hurt. He simply said that the staff changed his nature and that he was happy with the way he was. I deduced that it affected him as he was undead. Curiosity got the better of me and I walked over to Mal, who was holding Lewie's head. I touched the staff to the head and the eyes opened and then a small body began to grow. It was exactly like when Egog was regenerating. I took the staff away and Mal looked mortified that there was now a small body attached to the head.
Putting the staff away, I heard a soft nicker nearby and went to get the other horse before it ran off. I suggested that we quickly move on as a wagon on fire in the night was a big beacon. The camp was made to look like it had been ransacked and then we left to find another campsite for the night.
Mary Brown
The morning sun rose high above, shining brightly on our small encampment. We all awoke refreshed and starting pottering around doing our own thing. Breakfast was had and then once over, we all packed to get the day underway. Continuing our trek towards Morthus, I decided that it was best to head for the mountain base and then skirt around it back to the main road, as no one else had any other suggestions. We travelled until around midday and then stopped for some lunch. As I was sitting, drinking some of my vodka and eating pickles, which I also shared with Alf, he decided to strike up a conversation. He was sitting on my shoulder and leaned over, "Did you know that Mary and Struth are dead? How do you feel about them?"
I popped a pickle into my mouth and chewed on it before answering, "I already knew that and I am fine with Struth. It is Mary that I do not trust at all. She is not who she claims to be."
"Who do you think she is?"
"I think she is Albert in disguise," At hearing this, Alf spat out the alcohol he had just sipped, "I can tell you now that she is not he, I am he and I have always been with you." I looked at the weasel and made a face, "You only joined us at this stone pass."
"I joined you as soon as it was suitable," Alf said while licking his paw. "Then who is she?" Alf shrugged, "All I know is that she is up to no good and not good for Mal. Do you think he is strong enough mentally?" I glanced to Mal, who I could see was staring into the fire, but he seemed to be having some internal thoughts that were making him sad.
"I do not think, with all that has happened to him, that he may be strong enough." I saw Mal look up, and his expression changed briefly. He seemed to be angry but it was quickly gone again and he looked sad once more. Tyrian got up and sat next to Mal. He offered his vodka bottle to him without a word. Mal nodded, took the bottle and took a long drink. He once again returned to watching the fire, as did my brother. I continued to munch on pickles while Mal looked to Petros and they then began a conversation between them. Petros then mumbled some words and Mal seemed to be at ease. After their conversation, Mal loudly asked Mary why he had no friends, this seemed to be quite strange as I thought that he thought we were all friends of his. Mary piped up that we all were friends and that he was not friendless. We then all packed up and continued on, reaching the road and travelling along that until we had to set camp again for the night.
Once we were settled, our party sat by the fire and I could see that Mal was deeply troubled. He spoke with Petros again for a while before Petros got up then mumbled some words at Mal. Mal suddenly fell backwards unconsciously and so did Mary. A wisp of smoke left Mary's mouth and she became very rigid. She looked dead this time. Tyrian took the opportunity to tie the two up. Mal could not be trusted as this stage to not hurt anyone or himself... Mary just couldn't be trusted. When Mal came too shortly after, he became quick angry at the situation and fought against his restraints. He ranted that he was going to kill us all. Tyrian stared him down, demanding to know what the hell was wrong with him and to tell us everything. Tyrian's tone was enough to scare Mal into revealing everything... how he wanted to kill us all and that Mary had convinced him to do so. He told us about everything that had happened from blowing up the wharf which caused Struth's home to be destroyed and to the tavern burning. He had had quite a few things go wrong in his life.
Tyrian kicked Mary's lifeless body causing her to be moved closer to the fire. I could see that her arm was beginning to melt as if she was made of wax. I asked Alf what Mary was and he mentioned he believed that she was taken over by a succubus demon and that she was now free. I looked to Petros and asked him if he knew of any tales of any succubus demons. He told us what he knew on how they took over humanoids and that they target a person and turn them against everyone. This did sound a lot like what was happening. I mentioned that I believed that Mary was now free but I didn't know where the demon would have gone. Walking over to Mary, I could see that her arm was now completely melted. I picked up a stick and poked the puddle of wax-like substance to get a better look. I held it up and it did definitely look like wax. Mal was quite upset at this and kept mumbling that she was just a little girl. I held the stick out and said that little girls were not made of wax.
Dropping the stick into the fire, I sat back down as Petros cast another spell on Mal to calm him down. This also caused Mal to drift to sleep which was a good thing. The rest of us took turns at watch and made sure that Mal rested easy through the night.
Obadai the Hand-less
* Mal entered the room shortly after seeking out Obadai. He looked intent on getting his revenge. Obadai looked at Mal, not realising who he was at first. Mal approached the bed, looked down at Obadai and pulled out his axe. Tyrian took this opportunity to carve a shell into Obadai's chest with his sword. "You killed my best friend and you took my tavern," Mal started. I closed the door as Mal raised his axe, "Looks like I need to take from you, the tools you used to take from me." He brought down the axe with enough force to hack his hand away from his wrist.
* Obadai screamed as he moved arm away. Blood splattered everywhere. Mal then brought his axe down on his other hand and almost severed the whole hand. Obadai, in panic, pulled his arm away with enough force to force the rest to come away. Mal immediately then cast a healing spell and healed Obadai so that he was no longer bleeding but now had stubs. Obadai was still in shock though even though he was no longer in pain.
* Tyrian was happy with the results of the healing spell on his carving, as it left a scar with the design in place. He called me over to look at his work. Quickly looking, I then wiped the blood that had splashed onto me then left the room as Petros came in. I needed a drink and headed to the bar.
* The bar was pretty much empty and most stripped clean. There was one guy left trying to pry the wooden walls apart. I looked to see if there was any liquor left but it was all gone. My companions had come into the room at that point and I turned to Mal, "Do you have a secret cabinet or something?" Mal raised his fingers to his chin in thought then grinned, "Why yes... I do." He moved to a cabinet which he opened in a unique way to reveal an opening with stairs leading down. It was completely dark and Mal handed a candle over to me to light. Making my way down, Tyrian, Mal and Struth followed.
* The cellar was loaded with barrels of liquor and barrels of various pickled vegetables. After stashing what we could away, we got stuck into the remainder. After a while, Mal left then he came back shortly asking for help with something. He looked to me and I nodded. Getting up, Tyrian also offered to assist. At this stage, it was decided it was about time to leave as well so Petros went to check if there were any horses and Struth starting priming the tavern to burn it down.
* We followed Mal up the stairs and back into Obadai's room. Obadai was now untied and unconscious on the bed. Mal looked to me and said that he did not want Obadai to burn. Between the two of us, we carried the half-orc out of the tavern while Tyrian held the doors open. Petros was already out with a packed donkey by his side he had named Pickles. Struth followed shortly and threw a Molotov cocktail behind him. The tavern caught fire and began to burn. We watched for a while then was alerted to some coughing. Looking at Obadai, he awakened and then looked around him. He pleaded with us to take him but we left him with his burning tavern. Luckily Mal was no longer interested in the tavern.
* It was decided that we should continue onto Morphus but we would cross the countryside on the most direct route. Along the way, we decided to set up camp for the night. Mary and Mal had a conversation, that we could all overhear, and Alf commented as to the weirdness of the conversation. It seemed that there were more changes in store for Mal. Mary and Mal settled for the night after Mal had a conversation with Petros. At this stage, Tyrian and I had cracked a bottle of vodka and a jar of pickles. We enjoyed each other's company before settling for bed ourselves.
Obadai's Luck
* Waking up the next morning, there was a light knock shortly after. Rubbing my eyes, I sprung out of bed and opened the door. A young barmaid was standing there with eggs & bacon & ale. She was cute and her outfit barely covered her assets. Her skirt was also quite short.
* I waved her to the available table to put the food down. She entered the room with a giggle and set the food down. She then turned to the majority of the room and bowed. As she was bending over, Mal had woken up at this point and was stretching as he looked around the room. Her back was to him, and he got a good view of her derriere. He made a sound of joy, which she giggled at then left the room.
* I closed the door behind the barmaid then went over to grab breakfast and a beer. Sitting down at the table, I began to scoff my food down as Struth came over and sat down. He began to look through his bag of holding at some of the things that he had. He pulled out a deck of cards and started looking through them. Tyrian had sat down at this time as the cards caught his attention. "What are those? They look interesting." "This is a Deck of Many Things." "Can I play with those?" "Not now. They have a 50/50 chance of drawing bad." "I like those odds..."
* I looked at the cards and was just as interested as Tyrian but allowed him to voice his thoughts. I hoped that Struth would allow us to play with them. As Tyrian continued to talk about the cards and we discussed what we should do about Obad dai... a plan was formulated. We would use me, as bait, to lure Obad dai to a room and force him to draw some cards with Tyrian. I would pretend that I had lost a bet with Tyrian and that now he was my pimp. He would then pimp me out to Obad dai to allow me the opportunity to handcuff him so he would be forced to concede to play a game.
* Mal decided to go back to bed after breakfast, as he was still not in a good headspace but there had been a little discussion that he was past burning down the tavern and was happy to just continue to help people. This seemed to be his new goal in life.
* Getting dressed, I dressed up in a manner that would make me more alluring to Obadai. Struth, Tyrian, Petros and I walked over to the main tavern. I opened the doors confidently, with Tyrian behind me. This caused the whole tavern to stop and look. They all paused then began to make some comments and whistle. "Quieten down!" Obadai piped up from behind the bar, as he looked me over, he then wolf-whistled himself. "So, you have changed your mind?" I looked at him then simply said, "I lost a bet to him," as I pointed to Tyrian.
* "Yes, and the lady needs to pay her dues... Do you like what you see? We can come to an arrangement," Obadai dropped his tea towel in his excitement to consent. "Snipes, look after the bar for me while I take this lady upstairs." I turned to Tyrian who nodded, as Obadai came over and offered his arm. I took his arm as I allowed myself to be led upstairs. Tyrian and Struth followed. Petros decided to stay in the main tavern.
* Entering the bedroom, Tyrian and Struth gave it a once over then Tyrian nodded his approval when Obadai asked whether it was to his liking. Tyrian then ushered Struth out and followed him, closing the door behind them with a wink to me. It was now only Obadai and me in the room. I took the opportunity to throw the half-orc onto the bed as he had mentioned he did like it rough.
* Obadai sprawled across the bed in as he smiled. "Oh... I am going to have so much fun. Take off your clothes and join me," he patted the bed next to him. I undressed as I took out a pair of manacles and swung them around. "Yes, please allow me to pleasure you." I shook my head and said, "this is for you." "No, it will be for you." Again I shook my head as I sat down next to him, I reached over to grab his hand to handcuff to the post. He may have looked strong but I got the upper hand and was able to place the handcuff on his left wrist and wrap the chain through a bedpost. He grinned as he willingly put the other hand up, "Oh yes, you really do know what you are doing." I handcuffed his other wrist.
* Getting up, I took the rope from my bag of holding to tie his feet up. I could not hear what my brother or Struth was doing and was not sure when they would come back into the room. I was able to tie Obadai's feet to the end bedposts which he willingly allowed me to do. At this stage, I could see that he was very excited by what was happening. He pleaded that I remove the rest of his clothes and I obeyed by stripping him down to his loincloth. I still could not hear what Tyrian or Struth were doing, and Obadai asked for me to do what we had come into the room to do. I didn't want him to yell out for help once he knew what we were up to so I removed his loincloth on the pretence that I was finishing disrobing him and then rolled the cloth into a gag. I tied it around his head so he could not scream out. I could hear muffled sounds of excitement then disappointment as I began to get put on my undergarments.
* Going over to the door, I opened it to see Tyrian standing there with Struth. They both looked over to see my handiwork and Tyrian told Struth to go and get Mal. "We no longer need those cards." I felt disappointment in those words as I did want to see those cards in action. I would have to seize the opportunity when I could, to take those cards to use them in a game of chance. I am sure that my brother would assist in that matter.
The Lucky Rabbit's Foot
* We had set up camp for the night and the next morning, Tyrian crossed the river to investigate the area. I heard a familiar whisper after some time and headed across the river to my brother. He was staring ahead and said as I approached, "What do you make of that?" Looking where he was staring, I could see 6 female apparitions. Tyrian began to pull his sword out and said that it was probably not going to be helpful in this situation. I suggested that a magic-user would be better. I moved off to call the rest of the party over.
* Moving back to the river, I called out to the rest of the party to come across. I then heard a noise from Tyrian, turned and saw that the apparitions had headed over to him and one of them had passed through him. They were now headed towards me. I stepped aside, as they glided past and headed to the other members of our party. I knew the guys would be fine as I checked on my brother. We headed back to the party after some time. They were talking with one of the spirits.
* There was discussion around the retrieval of the relic as it seemed to be connected to the calamities of the town of Crossroads. There was also promised reward with the exhumation of the bodies. I bulked at the idea of disturbing anyone's eternal rest, even if they had consented. Mal was very eager to assist the town so we all agreed.
* A plan was formulated on the way back to town to have Mal and I search for the idol and the rest to disable the plague doctor without killing him. He had been the centre of the idol going missing. Mary had alluded to that the doctor was evil.
* Once back in town, Tyrian and Petros carried Struth in as if he was sick. Tyrian yelled out for help as Mal & I hung back a bit but still followed. The doctor came racing out of the tavern and called that they should bring Struth in. We all headed over. As Tyrian and Petros popped Struth on the ground, the doctor began to examine Struth. They kept him distracted as I headed behind the bar as I could see there was a side entry to another room. Mal seemed to forget what he was doing as he became concerned for Struth, once he had cried out because the doctor had laid his hand on him.
* I found a trap door behind the bar and entered that quietly. Descending the ladder, I found myself in a cellar room. Alf was pleased and said we should help ourselves. It was here that he accidentally revealed that this was not his original form. A search of the room showed that it was a normal cellar room and that the idol was not hidden here. I gathered some Elven and Dwarven liquor, stashing it in my Bag of Holding.
* Leaving the cellar room, I came back upstairs and popped my head back up. I could see that the doctor was now dead, with my brother hanging over him. "Was it necessary to kill him?" Mary answered that he thought he was helping but he was not. I shook my head as this was not enough to simply kill a man. Petros was not with the party.
* The next minute a patron walked in and yelled he wanted a drink then stopped when he saw the scene before him. I quickly grabbed a glass and cloth and started to clean the glass as I had seen plenty of bartenders do. The man looked at all of us with wide eyes. Tyrian told the man what he had been doing and that he was the cause of everyone in town dying and that we had saved the town. The man looked to the doctor and spat at him, then said he would tell the rest of the town and that the doctor's body would be burned. He then ran out.
* We could hear his cries from outside. I knew that we would need to move so exited out the back door. The rest of the party quickly followed and we headed back to where the spirits were. Petros spoke with them and put the idol back in his resting place. This placated the spirits and they returned to their graves.
* Tyrian and I sat on a rock, while Mal watched Struth with worry as he began to dig at the first grave. Struth had dug out most of the grave when I walked over to look as I was curious about how a dead body would look after some time has passed. Petros seemed to be curious too. As Struth lifted the coffin lid, I looked to see the body and almost gagged. There was no treasure as the spirit had told us. A moment later, the body began to rise and went to attack Struth. He screamed and Mal jumped in to help and tried to grapple with it. His face contorted for a bit as the creature touched him.
* I was not going to jump into the grave to help as there wasn't much room and I did not have any ranged weapons. I turned to look at Tyrian who was grabbing a rock to throw down on the body. Petros cast a spell and the creature froze. He ordered them to put the creature back in the coffin and to close the coffin. We could then hear moaning and knocking from the other graves. Struth pushed the creature back into the coffin and Mal closed the lid. Tyrian handed the rock to Struth to weight the lid down. I began to toss dirt back in to bury the body again.
* The others were still moaning and wailing. There was some quicky discussion and we figured out that the idol was attached to the spirits. Petros recalled a tale he had heard about some witches who had been buried alive. It was decided to leave the idol where it was and to simply leave the area. We continued on to Mal's tavern.
* Finally arriving, we could hear music and merriment from The Lucky Rabbit's Foot. Tyrian and Mal went to walk around the building to discuss some things while the rest of us headed in. I was making my way to the bar when I saw Mal in the middle of the room, making a speech of how wonderful everything was and how grateful he was. The next moment, the music stopped, someone said "Malar Naskin... Get him!" then the entire room got up and tried to jump him. He managed to push several away then with the words "Fukkus Rukkus." Mal disappeared. I knew then that it was not Mal. He only had very simple spells and could not teleport himself.
* The room cheered and then went back to their own business. I sat down on a barstool, waiting until a patron came up and asked what just happened. It was a halfling named Snipes, ordering some beers, who cackled as he told me that Mal had single-handedly run the bar into the ground then disappeared. Obadai the new owner, had brought the tavern back to a thriving business. Mal's best friend Manny had also been strung from the rafters and killed. He cackled at this as he gathered his beers and walked off.
* I ordered a beer and Petros came up to the bar and sat down 2 seats away from me. Struth was nowhere in sight. Probably out picking pockets. After some time, my brother came to the bar and sat between us, he talked to the bartender Obadai who retold the story of how he came to take over the bar. He then remarked on how similar Tyrian looked like me. Tyrian looked to me and said hi, you do look like me then turned to Petros and asked if he liked to gamble. Petros said yes and Tyrian invited him to a game with me. We agreed and sat at an empty table. Petros was sending us messages and it was agreed that it would not be revealed that we travelled with Mal and that he was currently safe in a room. Tyrian then yelled that we would like a room to continue our game. Obadai then turned to me, believing me to be a prostitute and tried to come to an agreement that we would split whatever money I made 60/40. I said that if I was inclined that way, why would I share my profits? He said that it was his tavern. I said that I was here to simply play a game. I could see that Tyrian took offence on my behalf to the suggestion of my profession.
* Once out of earshot, he asked if I was going to cut him or should he. I said that he was welcome to it. We went to our room, which conveniently was the same one that Mal was in. Mal was seething, thinking about the death of his friend and the take-over of his tavern, and simply wanted to burn the place down. Petros convinced him that we should wait till the next day as he knew that Mal was not thinking clearly and that he would regret his actions if innocents were killed. He had a plan and we would execute it the next day.
Going through the Mountains
* The party was busy debating which water teleportation hole to go through so I decided to jump into the one marked 10 with a "You only live once!" Naturally, my twin brother followed.
* Landing in water, I looked around and saw that I was in a shallow lake surrounded by mountains. My brother landed behind me shortly after. The water was quite cold and I started to head to the rocky beach. Shortly after again, Petros came through as well.
* Making a campfire to get warm, we waited on the rest of the party to come through but instead, we heard Mal through the hole, "Are you alright?" "Yes, we are still alive!" "Ok.. can you get back?"
* Petros got up and jumped back into the hole and disappeared. Tyrian and I looked at each other and I pulled out a bottle of vodka and offered it to my brother. We sat drinking until Petros came back with the rest of the party.
* We camped on the beach for the night and then the next morning, it was decided to head through the one opening that was filled with trees. We forged a path with the help of Mal and finally came upon a rocky area. In this area, there were 3 giant stone people sleeping. While the party were deciding what the next move would be, we could hear sounds nearby and then saw a weasel pop its little head out from a hole. Mal looked at it, mumbled something then chittered away at the weasel. They seemed to have a conversation and then the weasel climbed onto Mal's shoulder. Mal then led us past the stone giants.
* We continued on our way and by nightfall, set up camp. I offered some of the last of my jerky to the weasel and called him cute. The weasel chittered at me and seemed to say "Thanks." Shaking my head, I went to bed and slept peacefully that night. I woke up the next morning with the weasel at my feet. He seemed to speak in his sleep and was muttering "Stay away from her."
* Continuing on our way, the weasel seemed to take a liking to me and followed me or would hitch a ride on my backpack. Mal gave up the last of his bacon so that I could feed the weasel.
* We finally made it out of the mountains and stumbled upon a village, at this stage, the weasel was wrapped around my neck and was asleep. We walked into the centre and could see people wearing black veils. They seemed to be in mourning. We heard a door open and a plague doctor walked out announcing the death of a woman. The person looked around then headed towards us, taking its mask off. It was a man with pale skin and long black hair. He wasn't bad to look at.
* "So, we have some visitors.. are you staying or just passing through?" "Just passing through I answered." He then went on about how the town was experiencing deaths and that no one knew why. There was speculation that it started with an outsider who slept with a woman from town and that she died 2 days later. From there people continued to die. The other theory was about entities that would come at night and come in through windows. Tyrian tried to ask a question but the man didn't seem to like Tyrian and was quickly shut down. The man had taken a liking to me and was ok to talk with Mal but he ignored the rest of the group.
* The man offered for us to stay at the tavern and wanted us to follow him to check-in. I could hear the weasel, who was perched on my shoulder say "Don't trust him". I patted the weasel and turned to look at him, I asked what I should name him... I swear I heard Al and the rest was muffled. Mal piped up that we needed to get to the Lucky Rabbit's foot and this is where the conversation led to the man believing that the outside was the owner of this tavern. That his name was Malcolm but Mal convinced him that the man was named Michigan rather.
* Tyrian at this stage, had also now taken a dislike for this man and walked off. I didn't want to stay as it just didn't feel right so followed my brother with a "we still have some hours in the day, we should be off." The rest of the party must have agreed as they followed.
* Heading towards Mal's tavern, we stopped after about 1 and a half hours walk to make camp. It was at this time that Mal started to act weirdly and talk with the flora. After some time, he came back and told us what the plants had told him. They had advised of a tall pale man with long black hair, who had stolen an ancient relic made of obsidian from the ground near one of the trees. Now we had to decide what to do with this information.
Struth's past
* Mal pulled out his bow and aimed it at the man and told him to let Mary go. Tyrian came out of his hiding spot to come closer to help flank the man. I also moved closer, pulling out my twin rapiers. The man looked between all of us and mainly at the weapons that we aimed at him.
* Suddenly, Struth appeared in the clearing, bound and chained. The man laughed and lifted his staff, "There he is at last." He then cast a lightning spell and cast a chain of lightening at Struth. He hit Struth multiple times and Struth dropped where he stood. I knew this was not the real Struth and must have been the work of Petros.
* The man let Mary go and pushed her to the ground. I beckoned for her to come over to me. She came across and thanked me for saving her.
* Tyrian went to grabble the man but found his hands went through. Staring in disbelief, we then heard laughter from somewhere on our right side. Looking in the direction of the laughter, I could see the silhouette of the man and also a child. Looking to my side, Mary was no longer there. Looking back, the man then jumped into the hole next to him. It was identical to the one near us, which just had more water slides. He then popped up from the hole near us with Mary. He looked around and realised what had happened then said, "Oh shit!" I laughed out loud as his face clearly conveyed that had not been his intention.
* The real Struth took the opportunity to shoot an arrow and him then moved back into his hiding place. The man smiled, "Ahh.. there is my nemesis!" then cast a spell. A cloud of smoke appeared behind Struth and then embraced him. I could hear him begin to cough.
* Mal turned and pointed his arrow straight to the man's back and let his arrow go. He quickly loaded and continued to shoot until he dropped dead. Mary ran over once she was free and hugged Mal. "Thank you for rescuing me!"
* I asked her why she would allow herself to be kidnapped knowing that she really was not what she appeared to be. She simply said that she wanted to be reduced by Mal. She then kissed him on the hand.
* Asking Struth about the guy, he couldn't really give us much except that he was from his past and there was something about a debt. I asked Mary if the man had told her anything. She said that there was a deal with the Elder Brotherhood that had gone wrong, the man then owed a lot of money and he held Struth solely responsible for this.
* After some brief chat, it was decided to make camp here as it was late and to then continue heading to Mal's tavern. We still had to pick up the dwarves along the way
Looking for Mary
* After looting the bar, Mal conveniently popped back up and announced that Mary was missing and we had to go find her. He then ran back off again.
* Swinging my Bag of Holding at Tyrian, I shouted "Let's go, brother... I got the good stuff!" then ran off after Mal.
* Mal was on a hill, standing near a campfire. "She was taken... look!" He pointed to some adult-sized tracks, "I'm going after her. Who's with me?"
I looked around and noticed that Struth was not with us. "Where's Struth?" "Ahh shit!" Mal shook his head, "Who is going to get him?" I simply nodded then ran off back to the tavern. Peeking my head around the Mal-made hole in the wall, I could see Struth standing there. "This way Struth!" "I'll be there shortly," he said, as he began pouring alcohol around the tavern.
* Heading back to the campsite I told the group that Struth would be with us shortly. Once he joined us, after setting the tavern on fire, we realised the horses were still in the stables. "Ahhh shit!" Mal said, "I guess we're on foot from here. Who is coming?" It was decided after some debate that we were all going with exception of the dwarves that Struth had freed, they would be going to the tavern at the foot of the mountains to wait for us.
* Mal did point out that there was a light in the distance but it was decided to follow the tracks. Struth tracked them to a river where the footprints then stopped. We split up (Mal and Struth downstream and the rest of us upstream) and searched upstream and downstream on both sides of the river. Mal and Struth were the first to find something and had signalled us with a fire arrow. Tyrian, Petros and I then head back downstream.
*Reaching Mal and Struth, I could see in the moss hanging above a hanging that there was some missing. It was a small area almost child-sized. I pointed this out to Mal. Struth then corroborated this.
* Mal went first down the watery slippery dip into the mountain. Part way down we could hear him scream then nothing. I looked into the hole but could not see or hear anything. Struth then piped up he could just hear Mal but from the direction of the light source, Mal had noticed earlier.
* "Well, let's go!" I jumped into the hole and rode the watery slippery slide down then came out of the bottom and hit the ground. I was wet but not hurt. Tyrian followed shortly after. Mal was just standing there and looked relieved to see that some of us had come. He asked about Struth and Petros but I shrugged.
* Shortly after I could hear Petros faintly in my head... "Is that you Petros?" I asked. "Yes it is, who else do you know who can do this? Is it safe?" "Yes it is, we are in some ruins" "Ok, I am coming."
* With a woosh, Petros then popped out of the watery hole and hit the ground as we all had. Shortly after, Struth also popped out with a groan. He was not happy to be wet.
* I had spotted adult-sized footprints and pointed them out to the group. Mal then affirmed we needed to go in that direction as he could hear Mary with a man.
* Trying to walk in that direction quietly, the male voice boomed, " Come into the clearing... I can hear at least 2 heartbeats.... show yourselves I know you are there!" Mal and I looked at each other and the plan became for us to go into the clearing while the rest went around.
* Coming out, we could see that there was a man but he was covered in shadow, and Mary was kneeling before him. He had a spear in his right hand.
* Mal and I moved forward and the man gestured, "Ah, there you are but you are not the one I am after." "Let Mary go," Mal said firmly. "I will but only in exchange for the man that I want. Bring me Struth!" "Why do you want him? He's gone. He disappeared after he burned down the tavern." "Well, find him and bring him then you can have the girl." "I can offer you gold for her." "Gold is of no consequence to me... I want Struth... we have unfinished business." I took the opportunity while the two spoke, to move closer to a wall for cover. I don't think that this conversation was going to go in the man's favour.
La Grande
* Mal, Mary and Petros went back to their room for an early night. Struth, Tyrian and my self stayed down in the main tavern.
* Tyrian went over to the bar where Molock and Adwar were chatting and bought us some whiskeys. Struth declined but remained with us at the table. Tyrian brought 4 glasses over and mentioned that the two at the bar were acting strange.
* Listening in to their conversation while looking at Struth, I overheard that they were going to capture Mary and Struth. Leaning over to Struth as if whispering playfully into his ear, I told him that they were planning to make their move to capture him tonight.
* Struth bid us goodnight then went back to his room for the night. Tyrian and I decided another round of whiskey. Tyrian toasted me then took a small swig of the whiskey and then threw the glass into the fire. Yelling in excitement, I followed suit.
* Molock sighed then commented that there would be last drinks as he was going to close shop soon. Tyrian looked at me and nodded. "One bottle please and we will take it to our room!"
* Molock grabbed a bottle and placed it on the bar. I walked over to grab it and just as I was about to put my hand around it, Molock grabbed me with both hands and pulled me over the bar. I jumped at the same time, grabbing the bottle and landing on one knee.
* "What the hell?" I said as I looked up to be met with a dagger. He jabbed me four times in the side. I screamed out.
* "You alright sis?" Tyrian yelled, as I heard him get up. "No, I am not!" I smashed the bottle against Molock's head and then jabbed him with the broken bottle. Letting this go, I then pulled out my rapiers.
* "You bi*&h!" Molock let one hand go of my collar then grabbed his bastard sword to strike me. He was far better with the sword than with the dagger. He hit me a few times with it. By this stage, Tyrian had come over and was fighting Adwar.
* A loud sound came from behind the bar, which sounded like the wall had collapsed. I could not see anything but then Molock was struck by someone a few times. He looked over to the source than back down at me. "One at a time... you die first!" He struck me again with the sword.
* Molock had caused me a lot of damage and I struck him with my rapiers. This time he went down under my barrage.
* I looked up and Adwar died shortly after, I could see that he was filled with arrows. I believed this to be the work of Mal.
* Looting Molock's body and his bar for alcohol, I could see that Tyrian was looting Adwar's body. I was hurting so I took the potions of healing that I had on me and the one on Molock's body.
There's something about Adwar
* Adwar led us into the zombie encampment which only had 8 zombies and 1 other. We were able to quickly down take the zombies and then faced the leader who was a spell caster. He went down after a few hits. I searched the area while Struth searched the body of the spell caster. He left some items that he did not want nor need so I took the rapier and added it to my collection. I also was able to find some gold around the area.
* Adwar wanted to leave the area as quickly as possible. I questioned the fact that there were less zombies then he made out and also their strength... it all was a little too easy. He simply retorted that the rest must have moved on. I nodded in agreement.
* We all rode out on our horses until it was time to set camp. We set up for the night and made a nice fire. Adwar had a mulled wine he was offering but I wanted something harder so I declined and opened one of the vodka bottles that I had to share with Tyrian.
* As I was drinking, Mal asked if I could help Mary with taking her to the toilet. I looked up mid swig then nodded. Getting up, I giggled slightly as I said, "Let's got take Mary for a tinkle". We headed into the forest out of ear shot from the rest of the party so Mal and Mary could give me warning about Adwar. They did not trust him and wanted me to let Tyrian know. We also had to let Petros know somehow. Mal suggested that two take watch at a time and I advised that I could let Tyrian know as he could take watch with me.
* It was decided to take watch in pairs and Adwar and Petros were up first, then it would be Tyrian and myself then Mal and Struth. It was planned that Mary warn Petros.
* I was woken up from my sleep to take my turn. I could see that Tyrian was already getting up and in good spirits. He also pulled out the rest of our vodka and took a swig as he sat down to watch the fire. I quietly walked around to make sure all were sleeping before sitting down next to Tyrian. I leaned over and took the bottle from him, whispering that Mal had given warning to not trust Adwar and to keep an eye on him. I took a swig and passed the bottle back. This led Tyrian to start telling tales of where there were people we could not trust.
* We told each other tales until our watch was over. We woke Mal and Struth then went back to sleep.
* The next day, we broke up camp and continued on our way. The plan was to hit the next town and spend the night there. This also would allow for us to buy warm clothes for the cold pass ahead.
* Getting into town, Adwar led us to a shop where we could buy what we needed. He then headed to the tavern in town. The shop keeper was able to sell all of us warm clothes. He also gave us information about Adwar. He seemed to come through quite a bit through this town and how the day before he was headed towards Alisar. He also had a good relationship with the owner of the tavern.
* Thanking the shop keeper, we headed over to the tavern, where Adwar was waiting inside. Entering the inn, there were only 2 farmers, the innkeeper and Adwar. "Welcome to this fine Establishment.. this is Milos my cou... my friend." Adwar tried to cover up that he had almost said cousin. Milosh went to welcome us and told us that Adwar had covered us for the rooms for the night and our food. There were only 2 rooms so we would have to split the party up between the rooms. Mal decided that Struth, Petros and Mary should be in his room. This left Adwar with Tyrian and myself.
* Mal immediately went over to Milosh and some sort of stand off happened while Mal shook his hand. Milosh looked nervous and his eyes darted over to Adwar.
* I looked at the other two in the tavern and discerned that they were simply farmers and nothing more.
* Mal came back and said that we had to have our prayer gathering which we did every few days. Taking his queue, we all went to sit at the table in the corner and then held each other's hand as we leaned in. Mal told us that he did not want to stay here and that we should just high-tail it. Struth did not agree and wanted to stay. Petros was hesitant at first but Mal was able to persuade him to side with him. Tyrian and I were fine either way. I did point out to Mal that by him deciding who his room mates would be that he left the fighters of the group with Adwar. Mal was still unsure.
* It was decided that we would stay but that Mal and Mary would then sneak out and sleep elsewhere. If needed, Tyrian and I would have to take on Adwae if anything were to happen.
*
Chasing down zombies
* The next morning, our party gathered downstairs for breakfast. Addorm also provided ale to compliment our breakfast.
* While eating, a male entered the tavern. He wore a fur cloak (looked to be a fox) and had a neat beard and well-tended hair. His left arm was enclosed in a solid wooden shield with some wood beast painted on it. In his right hand, he grasped a wooden branch with the effigy of an eagle atop, shielded by its wings a purple gem sits at its heart. He eyed everyone in the inn and settled upon our table. He strode over and stopped just before us. He eyed all of us then settled on Struth. "Who is your master?" Struth was quick to take out a gold coin then put it away. "That is my master." This made the male laugh and agree that it was a good choice.
* He then looked at me and asked the same thing, I replied with 'the sea'. He nodded and commented that the sea was tumultuous but could also be calm. He then turned to Mal and asked the same question again. Mal in turn asked the male who he answered to. "The woods..." He eyed Mary for a moment then looked at all of us again. "I am need of people like you. I cannot offer coin. My name is Adwar." With that, he sat down at our table and spoke of eradicating some zombies. for him. Turns out the creatures that we had faced at the other inn were zombies.
* Mal got him to buy us another round as he could not offer coin and the only thing he could offer was to be a guide for us. Adwar told us about the infestation and that he had a group of companions that he had lost. He needed help to wipe the zombie nest out. After much discussion and questions, we agreed to assist up to a certain point then would make our final decision from there. He agreed.
* We set off towards the river (which he did show on a map he drew) and could see that there were six zombies. They were quickly taken down by long range by my companions. I felt useless at this stage as I was a close range fighter and the plan was to take them out from across the river.
* "Now, we have a day's ride to the zombie nest," Adwar commented. "Lucky we have horses," I remarked. We saddled up and rode for most of the day before we set up camp.
* Adwar began to collect rocks to make a ring around a fire, so I went to collect twigs and tinder for the fire itself. Mal went off to catch some food for us all.
* Collecting enough wood for the fire and for spare, I sat down as Adwar skinned the rabbits to make our meal. After we all ate a hearty meal, it was decided that Adwar and Mal would do the first watch. That meant that Struth and I would take second watch.
* I was woken up by Mal for our watch so I rolled my bedroll back up then sat by the fire. I added some more wood to it. Looking over at Mary, it seemed that she was awake. Getting up, I walked over to her and could see that she was definitely awake. "If you cannot sleep, why don't you sit by the fire?" "It is too warm for that and besides, I can watch the stars from here." I nodded then sat back down by the fire with Struth.
* The next morning, we ate breakfast then packed up to continue on our way, After some time, we passed some farms. I could see that one of the farm houses was burned down and that there were burnt corpses around the fields. Another farm house was still alight and I could see a person dragging them self up the path. Stopping my horses, I hopped off and went over to the person. As I was getting closer, I could see that the bottom half was all burnt and that the man only had half a face. He made the same groaning noise as all the other zombies had made. Mal had come with me and stepped closer, he poked the zombie on the forehead and healed it. It's body healed over where there were open wounds but it remained a zombie. "Valiant effort but alas," Adwar yelled.
* Mal backed up in time just as the zombie lashed out, narrowly missing Mal. It now was intent on chasing Mal. Going around behind it, I pulled my rapier out and stuck my weapon into its head. The rapier sliced cleanly through, killing the zombie. I drew the rapier out and cleaned it on the back of the zombie's clothes.
" I started to go back to my horse when Adwar commented that he also had the same weapon. He drew out a rapier which I could hear sing. I knew that it had some sort of magical effect on it. "Ahhh.. very nice but I can see that it has some sort of magic and mine does not." Adwar explained that the sword was passed down from generation to generation and gave him some bonus when he wielded it. I took out my rapier and commented that mine was a masterwork, not magical, but that I had two, as I drew out my other rapier. This made him laugh.
* Hoping back onto my horse, we rode further on before Adwar advised that we should stop here and leave the horses to continue on foot. Tying them up, we made ready to approach the zombie encampment.
The town of Magathon
* Entering the Imperial Inn, Tyrian went over to a table with a couple who looked like farmers. He spoke with them for a few minutes then wanted us to come over. I know that I simply wanted a drink and a good meal and headed straight to the bar. It seemed that the rest of my party may have had the same idea in mind as they also approached the bar.
* The barkeep introduced himself as Hugo and took our orders. He told us to take a seat and that he would have it brought out to the table. Tyrian shortly joined us.
* There were not many people in the tavern itself and the most interesting person was a female dwarf. She had blond hair. I thought that my brother may try for her as he did the last dwarf but Struth made his way over first. Tyrian leaned back and nudged me "This should be good."
* After chatting with the dwarf, Struth headed back to our table. Tyrian was trying to assess whether he had got lucky by putting his thumb up then thumb down. Struth gave him the thumbs down.
* Eating and chatting away, part way through our meal, there was a sudden disturbance as the doors were thrown open. A man stood there, or once what was a man, as he entered the tavern. He looked like he was infected or sick and made his way to the farmer couple that Tyrian had been chatting with earlier. He was quick, even though he dragged one of his feet, which was definitely not pointing in the right direction. The creature/man immediately attacked the woman, biting into her neck. It all happened so quickly as people stood from their table in shock. Hugo exclaimed, "What in hell is that?"
* The first to act was Mal, as he stood, drawing his sword. He went over to the creature/man and sliced its head off clean from its body. The disembodied head rolled away from the trio. The farmer screamed, as he realised, his wife was dead, and cradled her body.
* I ran over to the window to check if there were more of these creature/men coming. I could discern from which direction it had come as there were a lot of people staring at the tavern with puzzled faces. They were all in line, coming in from the opposite exit that we had come in from. I could see the local militia men in their guard towers not reacting. The militia men on the ground had come over to the crowd and I could see them talking with some of the bystanders.
* A gurgling sound could be heard from behind me, I turned to see that the woman who had been bitten, now seemed to be coming back to life. I felt that this would not bode well, as she became like the creature/man and tried to bite her husband. He held her head, to keep her from biting him.
* Mal then turned on the woman, and killed her, taking the husband's arm in the process. At this point, the doors opened again and some militia men came into the tavern. "What is going on here?"
* Mal, covered in the blood of the farmer's wife stood there, not sure what to do. He seemed to panic and cast a spell. It was too late to stop him, and I hoped that he was not going to attack the men. A monkey suddenly appeared, ran over to the bar and hopped onto it. It began to throw bottles and make a mess. One of the militia men went over to try and grab the monkey.
* "Where the hell did the monkey come from? What is happening? Who killed that woman?" the same militia man who had spoken asked. I explained that the creature/man burst in then attacked the woman. I also explained that my fellow party member killed the creature/man and that the woman then turned into the same thing. She had to also be killed. At this time, the male farmer began to twitch, and I could see the same thing happening to him that had happened to the wife. Mal backed up.
* "He is turning, you will need to kill him as well before it is too late," I yelled at the militia man. The militia man just stood confounded and this gave the newly turned man the opportunity to attack the militia man.
* I wasn't going to get bitten and turned into one of those things. I ran to Mary, grabbed her hand then pulled her out onto the street where it would be safer away from these creatures. Mal shortly followed and questioned my motives. I simply told him that I was removing Mary from the danger.
* Mary piped up and told Mal that she was safe with me and that he really needed a bath. This seemed to placate Mal. I wondered at his sudden change and super protectiveness of this child that he barely knew.
* The next moment, I could see flames begin to engulf the tavern. I stood there in surprise, wondering what the hell had happened to cause the fire. The entire building caught in flames as Petros, Tyrian and Struth came out of the tavern. I wondered if the others who had been in the inn also got out. I could not see the innkeeper.
* We could hear a scream, coming from the back of the inn, then nothing. The bystanders began to grab buckets of water to put the fire out. It wasn't too long before the flames were out but the inn was completely destroyed.
* Holding Mary's hand, I exclaimed to my party, as the rest came over, "Well, we should head to the next tavern." I could see one from across the road. They all heartily agreed. On the way over to the next inn, I asked Tyrian, Petros and Struth what had happened and what caused the fire.
* Tyrian sidled up to me and whispered "Well, you know how back home we put things in the fire to cleanse things..." I shook my head at this as I did know what he was talking about, "I will tell you the rest later."
* Entering the Duckling, we were met by the innkeeper. We told him what had happened and he offered to put us up for the 1 night free of charge. Any additional nights would cost us.
* Sitting down, he brought over some ales for the party and then food followed shortly after. The innkeeper explained her could give us 3 rooms, which had 2 beds each. I said that perhaps Mary should stay with me as the only 2 females of the party. This would also give me the opportunity to question her in private away from Mal. Tyrian wanted to also stay with us to protect me. I knew it was because he had to ensure that I got back home safely.
* Mal disagreed and wanted Mary with him. Mary told Mal that she would be fine and that she wanted to stay with me. She said that we would have a girl's slumber party. I could see that Mal half-heartily agreed to this but wouldnt push it any further.
* After dinner, I excused myself from the party to head upstairs with Mary. Tyrian followed. Once inside the room, I questioned Mary. "What has happened with Mal? He has changed." Mary told me that he had suffered much and that he was trying to find purpose. She was going to help him. I could see that she was telling the truth on this but she was still hiding the full truth. Tyrian gave me the thumbs up to indicate he believed her.
* Looking into Mary's familiar eyes, I whispered while Tyrian was not looking, "I know who you really are," before I said out loud that she better ensure that Mal was not hurt. Mary whispered back, "I know that you know but you do not know the full story." I nodded at her then we both turned in for the night. Tyrian set himself up in the only chair in the room.
Next part of our Adventure
* Dragging Struth downstairs, I tried to get him to tell me why he didn't have a heart beat. He shrugged it off with a Don't I?" so I dropped the conversation as he wasn't going to be forthcoming.
* Downstairs I found Robert still there minding my ale so decided to leave Struth to sit with him. Struth hurried to the bar. Petros was watching the bard.
* Robert welcomed me back and asked about the emergency and if all was ok. I admitted it wasn't as serious as it had been made out. Robert nodded. We chatted a little while longer before he had to take his leave.
* Grabbing my ale, I went over to Petros who was still watching the bard. His face showed he was trying to enjoy it. Mal came back down and sat with Struth. Petros and I then decided to join them.
* After a little while, Struth decided he had had enough and was going to bed. Mal questioned my goals and motives as he was trying to discern how far I would go for this party. I did explain that I would assist until I was required to go back home. I explained that I had a debt with Captain Silver Fox back home and owed him a ship - hence why I had travelled to find treasure. My brother in the mean time, had decided to buy my debt and had come to an agreement that I was to sail this ship back home to the Captain. Seems he had a bit of a soft spot for me. Mal was content with the answer and got me to agree to help defeat the Brotherhood.
* As my brother had decided to go back to our room with the female dwarf, I would have to find another place to sleep tonight so headed into the meeting room that Barley had lend us once before. Petros also decided to spend the night in this room. Luckily there were 2 couches. Mal headed back to his room. Not sure where he was going to sleep as there was only 1 bed in that room and Struth had already gone up.
* The next morning, we gathered for breakfast and discussed our next course of action. It was decided that we would travel to Port Morphus (Tyrian tricked Mal into believing there was Brotherhood there we could go after. I knew my brother was up to something but let it slide to see what he was up to). We all went to do individual errands for the day. I took Tyrian to potion's shop first where we got healing potions and vodka. I then took him to tattoo shop so he could mark his conquest on his body. I left him there to go to the magic shop to buy a Pouch of Holding.
* I had decided to make a homemade potion with the small amount of the Fallen Star when I got back to the room at the Red Dragon Inn. Seeing the healing properties before hand and then seeing Mal reverse his ailment, I decided a very tiny amount would go a long way. Putting into a small vial of vodka, I swirled it around and then drank it. I felt myself change and gain back what Egog had taken from me. I was so happy. At this time, Tyrian had looked up and remarked in surprise.. "What have you done?" I explained what I did and why. He pulled out a small mirror and gave it to me to look at my face. I no longer was 23 but looked like I did when I was 16. I began to laugh as I was now definitely the younger of the two. He sighed and demanded I give him some Fallen Star as he refused to not look like my twin. I gave him the leftover tiny bit in vodka which he quaffed. Instead of turning 16, he reverted back to a younger age. I burst out laughing again as I showed him his face. He looked 12.
* "How do we fix this?" Tyrian said, as he looked at his pubescent self in the mirror. "To the Magic shop!" I ran out of the room with Tyrian on my heels all the way to the shop.
* "I'm back," I declared as the shopkeeper welcomed us. He looked at me carefully, "You do look familiar but something has changed and who is this, your younger brother?" "No, he is my twin." The shopkeeper looked at the both of us confused, "Can you not see the difference between yourselves?" I shrugged and said, "He's male and I am female?" The shopkeeper shook his head. "What is it you are after?" I explained that we had made ourselves younger and now needed to reverse this. He was perplexed "How?" I explained that I had made a home made potion and that not all the ingredients were now available. He examined Tyrian and myself then said, "I think I do have a spell..." As he wandered off to look in his book. After some time, he looked up, "Yes, I do have a temporary fortify spell that as a side effect does age the user.... but it won't be cheap to get you back to your original ages."
* Tyrian pulled me aside and explained that we could age up but didn't have to go back to 23. He suggested 19. I agreed.
* Paying the shopkeeper, he cast the spells and aged the both of us to 19.
* Getting back to the Red Dragon Inn, we entered the common room just as Mal came down to the rest of the party with a child in hand. The child was waxen in appearance. Struth fell from his chair in shock and I questioned him, he explained that she was from the spirit realm. I questioned Mal, who did confirm she was and now was in the flesh. He also explained how she came to be. We all watched the girl carefully - who was named Mary - as she was rather odd. Her appearance was waxen-like. Mal seemed to be rather protective of her all of a sudden as he eyed anyone who watched her too carefully. There was a familiarity in her eyes to me but I just could not figure out why. Perhaps it would come to me later.
* We continued to eat then packed up to leave Alisar. Barley gave us some rations for the road and bid us farewell.
* After 4 days on the road, we came to a small town late in the day so decided we would stop here. We found a tavern to stay the night in.
Back at The Red Dragon Inn
* Our party were able to break off as much of the crystal that we could.
* Mal, unwittingly broke enough that the liquid from inside spilt out, reviving Egog and aging Mal in the process. Struth killed Egog once again. I told them to keep him out of the liquid.
* We shattered the tank with liquid which washed away the healing liquid. I took the Egog foetus with me so he could not regenerate again.
* We teleport-ed back out and headed back to the Red Dragon Inn.
* There we figured out that the crystal's effects would only work for so long before the crystal itself was no longer effective. Struth, Petros and I decided to sell ours. Mal decided to donate his portion.
* Finding Lewie (Head of the Drug Trade), we were able to bargain for the sale of the crystal.
* Back at the Red Dragon Inn, my brother found another set of twins. They were not that nice and a bet was wagered to see who could get their dagger closest to the bull's eye of the target. I immediately met their 10gp bet.
* Tyrian caught the attention of a female dwarf who came over to also bet on my brother.
* Luckily my brother won and the other twins got upset and left.
* The dwarf began to inappropriately handle my brother and I told them both to go back to the room. Tyrian before leaving, told me to keep a seat warm with a handsome but rough looking man in the corner who had a hunting dog.
* The rest of us ate before Mal and Struth walked off.
* As I was alone, I approached the guy in the corner and joined him at the table. We ended up having a nice discussion over drinks. His name - Robert.
* After some time, Barley came down to tell me that Struth or Mal was in trouble, he was not sure which one but my brother had requested for my help.
* I excused myself and asked Robert to mind my ale. He obliged.
* Running up to our room, I could see a broken bed (from my brother's sexual encounter), Struth prone on the floor with a naked dwarf hovering over him.
* I told the dwarf to cover up as I pushed her away from Struth to check on him. He looked like himself and his breathing shallow. I checked his pulse to ensure that it was still a strong heartbeat but could not find a pulse at all. How odd as he was definitely breathing even though it was shallow.
* I decided to slap him awake which seemed to do the trick. He opened his eyes in confusion and asked where he was. I let him know that he had gone off with Mal and was now here... I was unsure as to whether he was watching my brother.
* Pulling him back to his feet, he did remember going back to Mal's room so I pulled him out of the room to go and check on Mal, leaving the lovebirds behind.
* Heading back to Mal's room (my old room), I found Mal sitting on the bed. I asked if he was alright and he said he was. I asked what had happened and why Struth was in the other room. Mal said that he would tell me later and then mentioned someone by the name of Deego Spracket. I asked who he was but Mal again said he would tell me later.
* As Mal decided he didn't want to tell me anything, I decided to go back down to the common room where Robert was waiting with my ale. I dragged Struth back out of the room as I was going to question him on the way back down.
Back to the Fallen Star
Our group sat in the Red Dragon Inn, eating and drinking merrily. We had a plan to get the Fallen Star and now we simply had to act on it when ready. Looking around the tavern, people were enjoying themselves whilst watching the mediocre bard playing his tunes.... Petros was definitely way better! A stranger walked into the tavern while I watched the bard, their hooded cloak covering their face, as they approached the bar. Barley was tending and with his usual "What can I get you?" waited on the stranger to respond.
"I'm looking for a party of adventurers..." the stranger began. The voice was very familiar and I got up to walk over to the bar to see if I could see their face. Once I got to the bar, I was greeted with "How are you sis?" With a squeal of recognition, I threw my arms around him and hugged my twin brother Tyrion tightly. It had been just over 1 month since I last saw him. "So this is where you were?" He laughed, pushing me away to look me over. "I see that you are still in once piece and no scratches. This place looks nice," he looked around the tavern then looked at me again, "Dry, comfortable.. it's ok. Not too shabby." I nodded, "Better than sleeping on the ground."
Barley interrupted at that point, "I see that you know the lovely Dahlia. A friend of Dahlia's is welcome!" "He is my brother," I said to Barley, playfully shoving Tyrion. "Brother! Well, this drink is on the house! We will also bring some more food out," Barley pushed a drink across to Tyrion with a smile. "Come, meet my friends!" I grabbed Tyrian by the hand, beginning to drag him over to my table, "Hold on..." he said, trying to grab his drink as he got up.
I sat him down in an empty chair as I took the one next to him. "Guys, meet Tyrion, this is my brother." Struth, Mal and Petros looked at him, staring intently at Tyrion then looked at me. I knew they were trying to find the similarities between us. "Hello friends of Dahlia. I am Tyrion. Thank you for looking after my sister... " I looked up and interrupted, "It's the other way around, I have been looking after them." "Sssh sis.. I want to hear from them." I nodded and drank from my ale, quietly listening while he conversed with them. During the conversation, Mal challenged my brother to a friendly dual to test his skills. I looked at Mal surprised, then piped up, "So Mal, you have seen me fight and you think I'm good right?" Mal nodded, "well, he is the same but if you want to fight him, then I will bet my money on my brother." I pulled out 1 gold piece, as I slapped it onto the table. Struth immediately grabbed the coin with a "I'll match the bet." Out of nowhere, Barley also slapped down a coin and added "I will also wager on this fellow and add 1 week worth of board and a food voucher!" The room was brought to the attention of the wager, and soon everyone had placed their bets. The majority were betting on Tyrion due to his confidence. Struth was holding the coins.
Barley led everyone to the back, where room was made for the duel. You could see him looking around the room, his eyes lighting up. Mal and Tyrion entered the middle and Tyrion allowed for Mal to start. The duel went on for a while, I could see that my brother was putting on a show as he usually did to entertain the crowd. This would allow me to check the room out while they were all distracted. I walked around but didn't note anything of real interest.
When I looked up, I could see that Mal had Tyrion on his back and I immediately knew my brother had thrown the fight. I yelled out "Damn it!" Everyone cleared the room now that the fight was over. I walked over to my brother as he put his arm around my shoulders, I "You owe me 1 gold coin." "Oh alright," Tyrion reached into his pocket and passed me a coin. Struth also came up and said "I see what you did," then walked away. "What chip does he have on his shoulder?" Tyrion asked. "You made him lose coin."
We walked back over to the table and continued to eat and drink. Struth and Mal went back up to their room shortly after. Petros was quietly strumming away. This allowed time for Tyrion and I to catch up. He told me that he had taken over my debt with Captain Silver Fox for the ship that I owed. I was not happy at this prospect and asked what was involved. He said that I simply had to sail the ship back to the Captain as he was getting antsy that I had disappeared on him and wanted me to come back. I said that I would but after our mission.
Struth came back down shortly after but did not sit with us. Petros commented that we should leave soon and I agreed that it was for the best. I convinced my brother to join us as he had nothing else to do and could also make some money. Mal came back down as well then we headed out to our destination. Petros would teleport us in as far as he could and as close to the chamber with the Fallen Star in it. On our way to our destination, we came across a group of drunkards beating up an elf. I really did not like this xenophobic attitude that this city had. Mal ran over first with me following close behind. Our group quickly dispatched them. I gave my only healing potion to the elf, and went to help him up. There was something very familiar about his eyes.. he reminded me of Albert. I leaned in and whispered 'Albert?' to which the elf looked confused and said, "Who is Albert?"
I shook my head, as I lifted him. "No matter. What was your destination?" The elf dusted himself off and said The Red Dragon Inn. I pointed back from where we came, "Will you be OK getting there?" The elf nodded as he slipped his hood back over his face. "Yes, I should be fine. Thank you for saving me." I watched him go into the night and then we hid the bodies.
Getting to our destination, turned out it was in the storeroom of a tavern. Luckily Struth figured we could do it from outside. Gathering together, Petros cast his magic and we appeared in the same room where Egog's dismembered body lay.
Pawns in a Game
Our adventuring party made its way back to the entry of the catacombs. We had to go through more of those creatures but they quickly fell to our swords and spells. At the entry point, we opened the door slightly and could hear two Elder Brotherhood talking. They spoke about killing a man who they described as fat and grey. I could not recall if Gabe was in disguise and hoped that he was safe.
We made our way out under the disguise of the Elder Brotherhood with Petros leading the way. He chatted briefly with the other two as I closed the door so they could not get into the catacombs.We walked away then 'Dimension Door'-ed close to The Red Dragon Inn. Quickly taking the cloaks off, we briskly headed back to the tavern. Upon entry, there was no one in the tavern which was quite strange for this time of day. Only Barley and Albert were there. The two were chatting away as if they had been friends for a while. This set off alarm bells as Barley gave the impression that he wasn't really on friendly terms with Albert. They both welcomed us and there was alcohol and food brought out for us. They were aware that we were successful in our quest. The rest of the party were happy to partake but I did not. I eyed Barley and Albert, not trusting the pair of them. I was a little sad as I did like Albert. When asked if they had seen Gabe, they both looked sad and then Barley mentioned that he had run out of the tavern in haste but had left a letter for the party in the room.
Once done, we headed back to the boy's room to read the letter. Petros read the letter quietly fist while Mal drank some of the tincture. He immediately hit the floor as it took effect. Keeping an eye on Mal, I watched Petros' expression. Once he was finished the letter, he put it down for the rest of us to read.
"My cousin has either gone mad or he has killed himself. He wants us to find some cursed item and lay it to rest with his body".
Reading the letter, it did sound like a suicide note. Before we could discuss our next plans, Mal decided it was probably time to rest which we all agreed to. I went back to my room.
*******************
The next morning, I woke up feeling refreshed. Drinking some water and eating one of the pears I had, I decided to examined the bits of the fallen star that I had. Putting it up to the light, some areas lightened up but others remained dark. It was crystal like. Black. Breaking off a tiny piece, I crushed it between my fingers and it released an oil. I rubbed this over a cut on my hand and immediately it closed and the skin around it was rejuvenated. The blemishes that I had disappeared. Interesting. I put the rest away into a small container in a pouch that I placed within my under garments. Going downstairs, the rest of my party were there having dinner. The table was full of food and there was alcohol. We were being treated as VIP's. The bar maiden came shortly and told us that Barley did want to have a meeting with us once we were done. After eating, we all were ushered to the back room where we waited for Barley. Barley came and told us that Albert was part of a group who were using different people to further their end goals. They were not done with what they would like us to do (go after the Elder Brotherhood) but they were happy with the part we had played. Barley did not want us to go after the Brotherhood as he didn't feel we are skilled enough. He mentioned that he did not want us to go as he thought of us as friends and didn't want us hurt. He offered to hire us to do errands for him. We told him that we would think about it.
Barley left the room and then we discussed our next plan. I voted for going back for the Fallen Star. Mal questioned my motives and I showed him my hand. He immediately took some of his own, and under my guidance, he healed his arm back up. He looked at me and said we could make a fortune. I agreed. He also mentioned giving some of it the Temples of Healing. I didn't respond. The rest of the party agreed. Our next course of action would be to go after the Fallen Star.
Finding Egog
* Mal and Petros decided to use the teleportation device and appeared on the dais. They both ducked down beside me to hide. We readied our weapons.
* The same kind of creatures that we had fought earlier came into the room. Six in total. They seemed ready for us. One clanged his sword to lure us out. Running out, I killed one of the creatures and managed to hurt another.
* Struth struck next by taking a sneak shot at one of the warriors, taking him out. Now there were only four. Petros sang to give some of us a buff. Mal stood up to shoot some arrows. Struth struck again and killed another two creatures. Now there were only two. One of them decided to attack Struth with the chain the was holding. I fought the last two and killed them.
* We realised that to the south corridor, there were bars and behind this were more creatures crying out in anger. It seemed that they were spectating and now cranky that we had won the fight. Mal found the device to open the bars and I tried to disable it then break it. Satisfied with my work, I headed to the north corridor. The rest followed shortly after.
* Struth had to unlock the door. We could hear a low rumble and then once the door once opened, we could see a large transparent tank. Suddenly, there was speech in another language, it then switched to different languages to advise that it was used to its food being brought to it and not the food bringing it self.
* Going around the tank, we found Egog waiting. He said that I would be eaten last as he always ate his favourite last.
* We started to taunt his ability as a god. This enraged him and he cast a spell against Mal. Struth and Petros hid, while Mal took a shot then hid.
* Having to be in the fray of things, I ran up and jumped on the platform to run behind him. I ended up in a small alcove which had vials of green liquid.
* Mal's wolf which he had summoned earlier came out of nowhere to attack Egog. Petros summoned a fire elemental and Mal ran up and hit Egog with his Ring of the Ram. This caused Egog to fall out of his pool and at my feet.
* Striking him while he was down, I then moved back and this allowed the wolf to attack him again. The fire elemental then struck and caused Egog to catch fire. Egog decided to cast a curse at me, which caused me to lose charisma. Petros ran up after this to cast a spell which helped with evasion.
* Mal made a hole in his Egog's pool, causing liquid to fall out. This caused Egog to get upset. The same liquid in the pool was also in the vials so I destroyed them. Petros then cast magic missile and I struck again with my rapiers. Egog cast a spell which washed over me with negativity but I was able to resist. He was dealt a few more hits then he cast a spell at Mal who came into his line of sight. Petros hit him with magic missile and it seemed he had killed Egog. Not wanting him to heal, I used my rope to lasso around his head and started to pull him out.
* Mal hit him in the back of the head with his axe a few times. Struth snuck up and attacked him. He once again flopped forward but I was able to hold him out of the liquid. Mal made the kill by decapitating him.
* I pulled a piece of crystal - worth 7 GP. I also took a pinky sized piece of rock (healing).
Deeper into the Catacombs
* The group decided to proceed with caution further into the catacombs with Struth taking the lead. He would scout ahead to warn of any dangers.
* I saw Struth trying to push against a wall then moan. He then walked away rubbing his shoulder. I walked up to the wall and searched around to see what he was trying to do. I realised that there was a door so pushed with all my strength and was able to open the door. I did also break the mechanism in the process.
* Calling to my party, I waited as they came over then Struth walked into the room. He moved into the room and triggered a trap, just missing the trap going off as he was on it. Part of the floor dropped down to spikes. jutting from the bottom of the hole. I waited for it to reset then jumped over, landing next to Struth. Petros also followed.
* Continuing on, we saw many side rooms but nothing really of note. Struth moved off to look into one of the rooms then came back to advise he didn't really find anything. Moving to the other side of the room, we watched on as Struth opened the door after several attempts to unlock it.
* Walking into the other room, the room had paintings on the wall of people. The people looked drunk or out of it. One of the paintings had a person holding a vial. It looked similar to the one that Mal had drunk.
* We continued on, evading traps as we continued forward until we found a statue at the end of a corridor. The statue was of a strange creature with an umbilical cord around its neck. Looked to be Egog.
* While the party stood there, deciding what to do, I walked up to the statue and pulled out my dagger. Poking the eye of the statue, a bright light enveloped me then I was teleported elsewhere. Hearing the chitter of the creature we encountered earlier, I hid behind the altar.
* Moments later, Struth appeared and I told him to hide and he said that the creatures were coming from another direction and then darted across the room to hide.
Down into the Catacombs
* Standing there in the darkness with my companion's, I wondered if anyone had a torch. Luckily Petros cast light on his lute and lit the room up. We could hear sounds of slumber and could feel the slight breath of the sleeping Egog.
* Stuth disabled the door in hopes that no one would be able to open the door from the other side.
* We went down the stairs in single file - Mal, myself, Petros and then Struth.
* At the bottom of the stairs, the circular room had skulls in caverns on the walls all looking to the centre of the room. The floor was also made of skulls. The room is filled with some water. Another set of stairs that led up.
* Going up the stairs, we all moved silently as best as we could. We could hear chattering coming from somewhere. We came to a room and could still hear the sounds. Sounded like there were 6 creatures.
* Walking into the room, it was dimly lit by a phosphorous light. We could see some amphibious creatures running in and out of some alcoves down a tunnel that led out of the room. They were carrying some sort of blue phosphorous goop in bowls.
* Mal used Summon Nature's Ally to summon a monkey into the middle of the creatures to see what they would do. It launches itself at one of the nearest creatures. The creature slapped the monkey away and then cast fireball at it, killing it.
* Going back into the other room, we discussed what to do next. Mal decided to walk in as he cast a fire protection spell on himself. As he had a jar of the same stuff they were collecting, he would walk in with this as an offering.
* The rest of us could hear Mal's cries from the other room and Struth moved off first. I ran in after him into the room. Petros sang a song to buff us.
* I made it next to Mal, with Struth in a side alcove. Mal quickly went down under one of their attacks.
* I was able to take one of them down and critically wound another. Struth then shot the guy with a ranged attack. Between Struth and I, we took them all out. I did note that there were only 3 when there were originally 6.
Finding our way into the Catacombs
* Petros continued to fascinate the female drow while Gabe looked into what kind of spell was being used. As we needed more information from her, Petros questioned her through his song. We found out that Henry was actually dead and that she was at the King's Tavern.
* She started fading so Struth slit her throat in the hopes of killling her. A puddle of blood and wax was left behind. We were not sure if she was killed.
* Returning back to the Red Dragon Inn, we appeared back into the room. Mal immediately quaffed a liquid that caused him to drop. I figured he need to talk to the ghost in the room.
* Mal was able to find the female drow was threatening him to give us the wrong information.
* It was decided to leave that night. I did convince our group to go to The Library rather as I had a gut feeling that that was where we should be heading rather than to the King's Tavern. We could always go there later. I helped Mal get into disguise.
* In the tavern, Albert was there strumming on his new lute made of turtle shell. I ran over to him and threw my arms around him in greeting. He knew our intentions before I said anything, and he said to say hi to Imna Cobis. I figured that this is the name of the female drow. Turns out that he knew her pretty well. I asked if she knew him as a particular name and he said Alby. He did mention to stop her from going into the catacombs and that they themselves could go in if we wanted. He mentioned that Struth had the key and that there was gold to be found. Maybe there would be enough to buy a ship. I still owed Captain Silver Fox.
* Heading to the Library, Struth and I hid in the shadows leaving Mal, Petros and Gabe. There were 2 guards at the gate. As I sneaked towards the entry, I saw my 3 companions pop out of mid air and onto a table set up infront of the door. There was a man seated at the table. They spoke for a little but before Struth and I came out of the shadows. The man was working on solving the riddle. With Struth's help, we were able to open the door.
* Before the man could summon Imna Cobis, I took out my rapier and was able to fell the man in 2 strikes. Putting my rapier away, I quickly moved the pieces on the table around then grabbed the body to drag inside.
* We all went in with exception of Gabe and the door closed behind us.
The Meeting
* Struth decided to stay behind in the bar while the rest of us left to see if we could find the 4 brotherhood men. It was decided to take them out so we could fill their places.
* Once outside, we could see that the barn's doors were part opened so went to check there first. We found a bloody scene. The brotherhood were standing over 2 stable-hands that they had bludgeoned to death. Putting the Elder Brotherhood cloak I had, Mal reacted by firing at one of the guys with 3 arrows. The man then ran at Mal with an axe and hit him. Mal did quite some damage with the hit.
* Petros retaliated by freezing the guy to the spot while I ran into the barn to the next nearest guy. "What is going on here?" I said, as I pulled out my rapiers and attacked the man.
* Another came over to attack me with an axe, just before I was able to kill the first man. Pulling back my hood, I revealed my face and I pointed my rapier to the remaining guy. He sneered and said he would do things with my dead body. This made me mad and I pointed to his groin and said "Not if I cut it off first."
* The third guy was struck by some arrows and then began to cry. Shortly after, he got up and headed for the other door. Something stopped him in his tracks and he turned. I could see that he was not under his own will and he started to walk back. I knew that Petros had fascinated him.
* I attacked the man who continued to taunt me with words of what he would do to me, as I stepped up into his personal space to come face to face with him. I glared at him. This allowed for Mal, who had killed the first man, to come up behind him and smack him in the back with an axe. He then drew his dagger and dealt the killing blow.
* Struth arrived by this time to help.
* Getting some information out of the fascinated guy, we learned that they were merely thugs who had been hired to guard the meeting room doors. No one was allowed to enter. A drow had hired them. I searched his body and was able to find a coin purse, small St Alban's medallion and a small flask of liquor. I took off his cloak and threw it to Mal.
* While the party discussed what they would do with the last guy, I searched the other bodies. Looking up briefly, I saw that Mal had gone over to kill the guy.
* We quickly hid the bodies under the hay and would later dispose of the bodies. We hurried back inside, had a drink before going upstairs to guard the doors.
* Waiting around for 10 minutes, no one came but then we heard a loud humming coming from the room and then it stopped. Then voices could be heard talking about how they had solved the riddle to get into the underground cavern. Our party had been mentioned as pesky due to flooding their underground headquarters. Egog was then brought up which caused argument around the table a to whether he was myth or not.
* Looking into the two keyholes, I was able to discern that there were about 16 people. Henry and his lady drow were there. She was waving her hands around as if she was casting a spell. The others around the table were of different races and wore similar cloaks but in different colours. They were perhaps of different ranks or possibly different groups.
* We entered the room, and were met with the stares from everyone in the room. Henry asked if there was anything wrong that we had interrupted the meeting. Struth spoke up and said there was a disturbance downstairs. He was told to take care of it, while the rest of us were to return to guarding the room.
* Struth turned around as if he was heeding the order and Petros began to sing. He was able to fascinate the female drow and she stopped what she was doing. This caused the others around the table to disappear with exception of Henry. "What is this devilry?" Henry asked as he looked to Petros. Struth turned back and ran across the room with a "I'll save you" towards Henry. Henry thanked him as Struth took position behind him. He took the opportunity to stab Henry and Mal then quickly threw his axe across the room, killing Henry.
* I walked over to the drow and realised that something was off. She seemed to be here but not, almost like a mannequin. She was half sticking out of the wall. Looking to Henry, he also looked similar. "What is going on? It is like they are here but not!" I touched the drow then the wall. The others came over to look as well. Had Henry actually been killed or not? All I knew is that we had to race but to Alisar.
The Juxtaposit Inn
* Riding away from the orchard, we kept to the road until afternoon. We'd been riding all day and decided to stop and rest so we would be fresh in the morning to continue.
* Setting up camp, Petros decided to play a tune for us to pass some time. He played so well, that the forest went quiet as if all the animals were listening. At the end of the song, we could hear clapping. Looking up, there was an old man with a backpack with hanging pots & pans. "That was the best song that I have ever heard!" he said as he moved closer to our group. He introduced himself as Glad.
* Petros and Struth seemed to be suspicious of the newcomer but I wasn't sure why. As he came closer, I got the feeling that the man was not all what he seemed but I couldn't put my finger on it.
* He joined us around the campfire, even though Petros was not happy at this. He made it apparent that Glad was not really welcome and that it best he be gone by morning. Petros decided to go to bed early. He needed full rest.
* As Glad sat by the fire, Struth and I could see that his face was peeling. The skin under his faux skin looked younger. As the night rolled on, Glad kept scratching bits of skin off. It seemed like he had some sort of condition. I could understand why he might cover his face but not as to why he would make himself older. He talked about his knife, Mr Stabby, and upon closer inspection, I could see that it was well used. He stuck it into the log then went to bed.
* When it was my watch, I sat by the fire at first but then went to get Mr Stabby to have a better look at it. It was definitely worn, I could tell that it used to be a longer knife but had been sharpened so much that it had lost its length. The hilt was very old and quite used. It wasn't very clean. I lodged it into the log that I was sitting on.
* At some point, Glad woke up, and looked over at me. I could now see, where most of his make up had come off that he had acne but was nice looking. He grabbed some items and walked into the woods. Looking over, I could see that he was reapplying his makeup.
* Coming back. he began to look for his knife and saw it was next to me and came over to try and dislodge it. He wasn't successful. As he was much closer, I could see that he didn't do a very good job with the make up. Reaching up, I touched his face and came away with some of the make up. "Why do you hide behind this?" I showed him my finger. He looked at me, then asked "Did you see my face?" I nodded as I asked,"but why make yourself older?" I drew his knife out of the log as he spoke, "I have made myself look like my father so that his clientele keep buying as they think they are dealing with him. I do it to make a living". I gave him back his knife and then fixed his face to make it look more realistic. He offered to pay me to be his permanent make up artist but I did advise that I was an adventuring fighter. "Would you then accompany me to the Juxtaposit Inn?" I said that it would depend on the others. He nodded then began to make breakfast.
* Petros and Struth woke up to breakfast, and while they ate, decided that we would not accompany Glad. I did not say anything as I had said it would be up to the others. Glad packed up and left.
* We left shortly after, then about 10 minutes later came across a backpack on the side of the road. Pots and pans were flung everywhere. It was Glad's bag. Stopping my horse, I hopped off as Struth muttered "Not again." I yelled back that they could continue and that I would catch up.
* I could see marks on the ground as if a body had been dragged. I followed this until there were no more marks. No unusual sounds could be heard as I looked around. I spotted some of Glad's disguise under some leaves. It had been covered up. It seemed strange that this was but not the marks. I listened out again and could not hear anything out of the ordinary. Glad had probably been taken by some bandits but it also seemed a little unlikely. Not thinking too much into it and presuming him dead, I went back to my horse to see my comrades had waited. I told them what I found and my thoughts and that we should keep an eye out.
* Heading to the Inn, we found that it was a busy spot. Tying off the horses, we entered the tavern and were ushered to a table by the barman. A bar maid came over and took our lunch order. We could see that there were some Elder Brotherhood here. Struth organised a room for us and some drinks. While waiting for my food, more men came in from the Brotherhood. We overheard that there was going to be a meeting and it would be in 5 hours. The 4 men got up the tavern. There was still three hours before the meeting. We finished our meals then Struth decided to go and investigate.
* Petros and I stayed behind and shortly after, a farmer wearing a cowboy hat came in. He talked with the barkeep about a sick cow Bessie. The farmer was here to see her and see what he could do for her. Poor Bessie! I hope she would be alright.
On the Road to the Brotherhood
* Chatting over breakfast, the group could still not decided which way to go. I was for the Library, Mal was undecided, Struth wanted to find the headquarters, Petros wanted to hire a diviner and Gabe didn't say a thing.
* Spotting Albert at the bar wearing a hat with a father that was drooping, I decided to get some advice from him. It also gave me a chance to chat with him and admire his handsome face. Running over, I wrapped my arms around him with an 'Albert!" He looked up and said "Dahlia" as I sat down in the seat next to him. "Hello, my dear, how are you? How are things?" He removed his hat and looked at the feather. "Damn hat, can you fix this?"
* I took the hat and straightened the feather out as I told him that we had saved the slaves as he had asked. Passing the hat back, he smiled and ordered me a beer (and called me his mistress!) as he put the hat on. "Yes, I had heard something through the grapevine. So, what can I do for you?" I asked him for advice as to what the group should now do as we were at a crossroads. "Ah yes, do you travel the well-known road or travel the unknown road? If you travel the unknown, you may learn some things that could help you in your quest but time is of the essence." He then made small talk about how he heard that Petros had performed quite a show and asked me how he compared. I confessed that I had not heard Albert sing yet which caused him to look around for his lute. "Damn, I have lost another lute. I will have to buy another. I will not be able to perform for you."
* Nodding in agreement, I handed his hat back as I sipped the beer. Albert was quite happy that the feather was now standing. "Is there anything else my dear?" I shook my head and thanked him as I stood with the beer and made my way back to the table.
* Sitting with my companions, I told them what Albert had said. Mal then piped up asking which way to go. With a sigh, as I realised I forgot to ask, I yelled out to Albert. "Would you like to sit with us Albert?"
* Albert came over, the feather on his hat was drooping again, put his beer down, turned the chair and sat down. He took the hat off and asked me if I could fix it again. I nodded, taking the hat as he thanked us for allowing him to sit with us. Mal and Albert immediately starting talking about which direction we needed to go and there was some chatter with Petros as well about his performance. Albert mentioned that he needed to get another lute, which Struth decided to write down the name of a shop that he could buy musical instruments from. Albert thanked him and finished his beer. Taking the hat back, he thanked us all and said that he must go. On his way out, the feather hit the top of the door frame and immediately drooped again.
* We got together what we needed and headed out of town on horses that we rented from Barley. On our way, we could see that some houses had a white circle painted on them. There was some talk about the marks being related to the plague or that they people had been marked for something. Arriving at the gate, this time there was no issues, and we were let straight through. I saw the wanted posters on my companions and was glad to see that my face was not added to them.
* We travelled until midday, when we came upon a small town. There were some houses marked with the white circle. Deciding to stop for lunch, we found the local tavern and ordered the special. We asked about the markings and the barmaiden advised that she did not know what they were. She did mention that one of the houses that were marked, the resident Tom, was here in the tavern, and pointed to a handsome portly man sitting with 2 others.
* Mal looked at me with a "Can you go over?" and I obliged but not until after I ate my meal. Walking over, I sat down at the table and greeted the men. They all stopped chatting, and the man I wanted to talk with looked over at me. I offered to buy a round but they declined. I advised that I had heard that he was favoured among the women, which he nodded his agreement and he leaned on the table. We got talking about his farm and his orchard. There was no real way to ask without being direct, so I tried to be sweet as I asked if he knew about the white markings. He immediately tensed up and wasn't sure what to say. He did advise that he had one on his door but he didn't know if it were for protection or if it was an omen. I could sense that he was lying and knew more but didn't want to divulge this.
* He immediately finished his drink, and said goodbye and left with the two men. Getting up, I went back to my table and told my companions about what had just transpired.
* We left, and followed the men, who were heading in the direction we needed. They then turned down a driveway and into a house.
* Struth and I went to the house, while the rest waited. On the balcony, I moved out of sight of the doorway so whoever stood there couldn't see me as Struth knocked. Tom came to the door and a transaction was made to get some apples. Struth entered the house and I waited. There wasn't much to do and after some time decided to scout around the perimeter of the house.
* At this time, Tom had come out the back and entered a barn. After some moments, he came back out with a crate and walked back into the house. I entered the barn and saw some horses, a dog and produce. Taking some pears, I scratched the dog behind the ears and then left the barn. By this time, Struth had already made his way back to the party so I followed shortly after.
Not Henry
* Lifting the lid of the tomb, a dagger snaked out which I was able to dodge and could see a man who looked like Henry. He looked scared and wimpy in comparison to the man that I had seen at The King's Tavern. I knocked the dagger from his hand, which caused him to cower in the tomb.
* Mal came in and directed his long bow at the man as he whimpered to kill him. I pulled him out of the tomb and threw him to the floor. Looking at him closer, he definitely looked like Henry but wasn't him. I could see that there wasn't a disguise and believed there was some spell cast to disguise him instead.
* Questioning the man, we learnt his name (Tom) and were able to get some other information out of him like he was told to to pretend to be Henry and his family would get paid 100 gp. The ritual had to either be a success or if it failed, he would have to give his life up as a sacrifice. He whimpered again to kill him.
* Mal dragged him outside of the tomb as I investigated the tomb further. Tom had been trying to turn a key, which didn't work when Mal had tried it. I could see that the tomb had what looked to be panels that dropped down. There was also a gem that was glowing - it had a light spell on it. Taking it, I pocketed it. Stepping into the tomb, I realised that I could break it with some force. Stomping down hard enough, I was able to break it. There was just black, which looked like velvet was laid down. I went to pick it up but my hand disappeared into it. Feeling around, I was able to grab a book (History of Alisar), a portfolio of maps of Alisar and a warm stone. The books were slightly charred and the stone looked burnt. Realisation hit me that this would have come from the Library, so I stuck my head into the portal.
* On the other side, I could see some books and stone walls. The ceiling was no longer there and opened to the night sky. It looked like some of the remains of the Library.
* Coming back out of the tomb, I walked out and could see that everyone was around Tom. Mal had his axe against his throat. The group were discussing what to do with him. Mal looked troubled.
* Petros decided to cast suggestion on Tom so we could glean more information from him. We learnt that the ritual was to appease the Elder Gods. There were 4 Gods - Bast, Hypnos, Kthanid and Oryx. Gabe figured out that is why the brotherhood was called the Elder Brotherhood. Petros wove a tale of the Elder gods and how some were dormant on earth (Egog and Pan).
* After some argument, the majority ruled in favour of sparing Tom and having him ran away. Mal promised to try and make sure Tom's family were safe.
* Deciding it wasn't safe to linger, Gabe teleported us back to the Red Dragon inn where another discussion began. It seemed fishy that in a city of xenophobes that there were 2 drows. It also seemed strange that a drow would be captured from the far north to be used for digging when someone who lived closer could be caught. Thinking about the 2 drows and their faces, there was a lot of similarities between the two. I believed that they were related. I was a little disappointed that we had let him go but when we had questioned him at the time but he seemed to be telling the truth. I hope that we were not wrong about him.
* The discussion turned to what our next move would be - going to the Library or the Elder brother headquarters? I voted for the Library and Mal & Struth wanted to go to the head quarters. Petros & Gabe wanted to discuss this over breakfast rather as Gabe flopped into his bed. Mal seemed eager to get a response but Gabe yawned. As there wouldn't be a vote, I decided to leave the guys to sleep.
* Going through the main section of the tavern, I looked out for Albert. There were only a few people still drinking, so I ordered a night cap then took it to my room to enjoy. I hoped that Albert might be there the next morning to get some advice from him and to also see his handsome face.
Saving the Sacrifice!
* Once Mal ran off to go and get Gabe, Struth decided to go one way and then Petros decided to go the other way. Just great! Mal had told us to stay.
* Mal came back with Gabe and asked where the others were. I pointed one way, and then the other way then shrugged. I could hear the doors to the tomb opening and another chanter came out behind the floating sacrifice. Then all of a sudden, for whatever reason, the 2 guards and 3 of the 12 chanters ran off down the hill. Not sure why but it must have something to do with magic as one of remaining chanters started babbling incoherently.
* Turning to Gabe, I mentioned that we should remove the sacrifice as this might ruin the ritual. Gabe flew off then used dimension door to move the girl out of the way. Gabe and the girl popped up behind us. Mal tried to stop the girl from sliding down the hill (as she was tied to a board) but face planted the dirt. Luckily I was able to stop the girl mid slide. I was helping her up when one of the chanters pointed us all out. Next minute, I was struck by lightning and so was the poor girl. I was able to resist most of the damage but she wasn't able to. She was burned on the spot and died in my arms. Sighing, I let her go as there wasn't anything we could now do for her.
* Pulling out the scroll from my backpack, I wasn't able to use the spell on it and decided to stick it into the bottle of vodka to use as a cocktail molotov instead. Lighting it up, I threw it at one of the guys. He instantly caught fire and burned to death.
* One of the others, seeing his friend die was not happy with me and then cast a fire spell which caused some minor damage. Gabe immediately came to my defence and cast his own fire spell back with the words "You shouldn't hit a female!" 2 of the chanters were killed with this spell.
* Another fire spell was cast my way and Gabe came to my defence once again. He flew down and cast a spell on me... I don't think it did anything but I thanked him anyway. With the words to Gabe, "Watch my back!" I ran into the fray and took down the remaining 2 chanters with my twin rapiers. There was only the babbling one and the lead chanter who was hiding in the tomb.
* Gabe and Mal were arguing about what to do with the babbling guy, I dropped my backpack and mentioned there was rope and stormed into the tomb to take on the last guy.
The Ring of Brodgar
* After some debate, it was decided that we should check out the area on the map that Struth found. It was still afternoon so after some prep, we left the Red Dragon Inn.
* On our way out of town, our party stopped at Theodore's shop for some much needed healing potions. Gabe was in a bad way so bought one of the better ones while Mal and I bought one of the small healing potions. I also bought some vodka. It could either keep me warm on a cold night or could serve as fuel for a fire.
* The city gate had guards that were checking everyone that was coming in and out of the city. While waiting in the line to be checked, I saw posters of wanted people on the wall. I recognised four of the posters as my party. I briefly wondered what they had done, then moved slightly from the group to disassociate myself in case they didn't make it through the gate. No sense in getting caught with them. Who would then bail them out?
* Approaching the guard, I was asked some questions on whether I was taking things out of the city. I answered no and they let me through. Hopefully the rest of the party have no issue. I continued to ride ahead as it would look suspicious waiting from my comrades.
* The rest of the group quickly caught up and we rode along the path up to our destination. Others on the road started to thin out and soon it was only our party on the road.
* Heading towards our destination, Mal decided to scout ahead whilst the rest of us continued. We stopped just before a parked caravan near the top of the hill when Mal caught back up to us.
* Struth searched the caravan and reported back that there was evidence of a sacrificial offering.
* Tying off the horses, Gabe decided to stay with them and the rest of us went ahead. If we ran into any trouble, one of us would go back to get Gabe or worst case.. yell!
* Climbing to the top, hidden behind some rocks, we could see some guards and 5 cloaked figures around a tomb. There was muffled crying coming from the tomb.
Escaping the underground
* I decided to block the hole with the cloak of one of the dead guys so no one else would look into it.
* it was decided that the half orc Balik would accompany us while Gabe teleported the rest of the rescued slaves. We needed to find the halfling Argen.
* The party made its way back to the room we had not looked in. Opening the door, we could hear the sound of someone sleeping. Peeking through the second door revealed a naked halfling. It was Argen and he was chained. Henry had been abusing him.
* Before Struth could release him, two women had magically appeared in the room. One immediately cast a spell and yelled to the other to get an urn.
* Petros fascinated the one who was told to grab the urn while the rest of us attacked the other. In the midst of the fight, she did grab the urn. I was able to stop her dead in her tracks. I took the satchel that she had placed the urn in.
* The other was chained to the bed once Argen was freed. Balik and Argen took what they wanted from the room. We all then left the room with exception of Struth.
* Struth quickly caught up then went off with Mal. Petros and I made sure the slaves got into the boats.
* Back at the Red Drsgon inn, we were told of how each one had been kidnapped and then teleported to the cavern. The time spent varied between each slave. People split off and we gave them our cubes for their protection.
* Barley organised for their safety outside of the city walls.
Saving the Slaves!
* Waiting for the three men to walk past and around the corner, our group then climbed down the cliff face... with exception of Mal, who face-planted the ground. Luckily it wasn't too far to the ground.
* It was decided that we should all stick together as a party. We made our way down the tunnel to a side room. It was locked from the outside so we knew there had to be slaves in there. Petros and I waited on the outside as Mal, Gabe and Struth walked in. Gabe would teleport them out.
* Once the three returned, we continued our way down the tunnel past a room that wasn't locked from the outside like the first room. We could hear snoring coming from the inside. It was decided to leave this room alone and continue.
* We came upon two doors which swung both ways. Pushing the doors in, we continued towards the sound of mining. We could see a man, with his back to us, who seemed to be the one in charge.
* Struth struck the guy first, who yelled out in pain, alerting any others down the cavern. with Mal's help, the two of them took the guy down.
* Two guys came running down the corridor, and one of them engaged with Mal. Struth had already made his way back down and hid. The second guy, ran past Mal and was headed after Struth.
* I ran up, and tried to strike the man down, but missed. He did not though, and struck me in the back when I continued past him to get to Mal.
* Mal and I flanked the fighter, and took him down together. Luckily in this time, the rest of the part had immobilised the other guy.
* Turning to look at the slaves, I was overwhelmed by the small hole in the wall that the slaves were trying to get through. I was transfixed by it and could see black shadow coming out from it. Shaking my head and snapping out of my daze, the shadow went back into the hole.
* I began to walk up to the slaves to check on their welfare... I will also see if I can block that hole.
Vignette 1.1
Dahlia searched her room for the map she knew that she had won from a game once. Finally finding it, she spread it out onto the table and weighted the corners with random trinkets.
Where should I go? Let's see...
Closing her eyes, she circled her finger around the map for a few seconds then touched the map. Opening her eyes, she removed her finger to see where she had pointed. The closest city to the location she had pointed to was a city called Alisar.
Alisar... hmmm.. I will have to travel by boat to get there but it is far enough. This is exciting!
Taking out a piece of paper and a quill, Dahlia began to write a letter to her brother.
Dear Tyrian,
I write this letter in farewell. I am off to Alisar to find treasure as I need the money. I did not want to burden you by asking for money so have decided to set off on my own. I will fix my debt! Please know that I will be safe but if I do not return, please know that I will always love you. I hope your business continues to grow.
All my love,
Dahlia.
Folding the piece of paper in half, she wrote Tyrian's name on this and then placed it under on of the trinkets. Carefully rolling the map back up, she put this away into her backpack.
Now, what will I need... I will need food and water. A light source of some sort. Fire making materials....
She began to gather what she thought she would need. Things she didn't have she would have to content with not having.
Hopefully I will have enough gold to buy my passage to this new land. It will definitely be an adventure!
Grabbing all her things together, she took one last look around her room then made her way over to the docks.
Vignette 1.0
How the hell am I going to get a ship?
Dahlia paced up and down the beach, leaving a series of footprints in the sand. A small red crab barely escaped being crushed by her boot. It clicked its pincers as if it was annoyed as it made its way to the water.
I knew I shouldn't have gambled with the Captain, knowing the stakes were so high...
She paused momentarily to bring up a mental picture of the Captain, a wishful look on her face. She remembered the way he looked at his cards, the side of his mouth curling up into a half smile, his steel grey eyes twinkling.
But he is so handsome...
Again the mental image of the Captain appeared and she shook head to rid herself of the thought.
Also.. fueled by all the alcohol that we had consumed together... I couldn't help myself...
She began pacing up and down the beach again, adding more footprints to the sand.
Maybe I could steal a ship... but I would then have to make some changes to it so it wouldn't be recognisable.. I don't have that type of money... I can't ask my brother for help. I know he would want to help but I don't want to put him out especially since he has finally achieved his dream of owning a tavern. I'm so happy for him.
Dahlia smiled at the thought of her brother running his own tavern as she stopped in her tracks. This was only fleeting as her other thoughts quickly returned.
I will just have to find a way to earn the money to buy a ship as the option of stealing a ship is out. I can't get a regular job.. that would be so boring and too time consuming. I need funds... and I need them quick.
Dahlia looked out to the sea and watched the waves rolling into the shore. How she loved the sea! She sat down, bringing her knees up to her chin and wrapped her arms around her legs.
Perhaps I could find enough treasure that I could then buy a new ship for Captain Silver Fox. Treasure hunting can be fun. Now to find some treasure... I'll have to leave town and it may be best that I go far away... in case I don't get enough treasure to buy a ship. Where to go? Across the sea somewhere... I'll have to get a map and choose where to go. This could be fun... An adventure to find treasure!
Burning down the House
* So, the plan to free the slaves is to cause distraction by burning down the library! Then we go down to the cavern using this distraction to free the slaves. I hope this works....
* Sitting atop of an adjacent building to the library, I looked for the best spot to throw the Alchemist's Fire then tossed it as far as I could. I could see that it successfully caught where it landed on fire.
* Deciding to bolt, I realised that we hadn't really decided where to meet so figured to head back to the Red Dragon Inn.
* Luckily I was right to head to the Red Dragon Inn, I found my group there already. Gabe was at the bar so I decided to join him.
* Rum in hand, I followed my party into a back room where we further discussed what to do. Down to the docks!
* Talking with the harbour master, I was able to hire 2 rowboats for 2 silver. Mal suggested giving him more for his silence, which I handed over.
* With the 2 boats tied together, I rowed the boat under the docks to the wall of the cavern with Struth's help. Turns out he can see in the dark.
* Once we hit the wall, we crawled through the space and then tied the boats off on the closest stalactite. I hope that we are able to free the slaves.
Alisar
* Finally... I have arrived in Alisar... the place that I chose from the map. I will have to go around town and find an inn to stay at while I am here.
* I found a tavern called The Red Dragon Inn. Looks like it could be nice from the outside. I wonder if the inn keeper will be able to help me out by pointing me in the right direction... I wonder if there is any treasure to be had.
* There's no one really in this place... hold on... there is a guy at the bar chatting with the bartender... Oh! So handsome! Not as handsome as Captain Silver Fox though but he may still want to play cards or dice. I wonder if he is a gambling man. I'll go and introduce myself.
* Why doesn't Albert want to play? Ah.. now I have lost his attention to this group that have just walked in... they look sad. I wonder what happened.. and there he goes. Bye handsome! The bartender is definitely not eye candy but I am thirsty.
* He's back! Wait.. now he is sad. I'll give him a hug. Sigh. He doesn't want it... said his friend had died. Ah, that is why everyone is so sad. Maybe this isn't the best place to be right now... oh... there is a guy sitting by himself... he looks like he gambles. I'll go and play with him. I'll take a drink over to him as well. He should enjoy that.
* Well.. at least I won some money even if we didn't play for long... and now I have 2 drinks to finish. I'll go and chat with Albert over at the bar again and finish these drinks.
* Ooooo... I may make some money... Albert has some idea to make money. I hope that I can make quite a bit... also, I'll get to spend some more time with him...
