7th Day of Brewfest, CY 580 - Jarrus and crew explore further into the ToEE ruins

Part 1 - The Temple Ruins

After retreating from near death by black pudding, Jarrus, Othmar and Dardac returned to camp where Janziduur was able to apply some healing. Jarrus inspected his armor and weapon and saw the damage the pudding had wrought to the metal. It was still functional, but some of the magic had been worn away, making it less effective than it once was. Perhaps there is a way to restore its luster, but for now, he would have to make due. After discussing what to do next, the party decided to rest overnight and then delve in again, hoping to find the source of the evil that still taints the land and whatever was creating these monstrous undead.

Before venturing back into the temple, Janziduur cast Negative Plane Protection and Protection from Evil on each of the three party members. They then went exploring. Whatever was left of the black pudding was gone. Exploration of the remaining, accessible portions of the third level of the temple seemed clear, though there were plenty of track marks around to indicate zombie bugbears have been roaming around. The upper levels were completely collapsed, as were portions of the third level, so, after exploring as much as they could, the party took the steps down to the fourth level.

"This is where we fought Hedrack and came face to face with Iuz," Jarrus told a skeptical Othmar. The air down at this level was very cold, though not quite freezing. Luckily Othmar was able to find some clothing and an extra cloak in a storage room on the level above, after the pudding burned away what he had been wearing before. Six more bugbear zombies were found on this level, and they were as tough as ever. They were slow and didn't hit very often, but they sure packed a punch, as Jarrus lost more than half of his hit points in a tough fight. But the group eventually prevailed and were able to move on.

Further up the hall, as they approached the altar where Iuz had been summoned, a crack appeared in the middle of the floor and widened as it went down the hall. The party had to choose to be on one side or the other and chose the left side. On either side of the altar, the statues of Iuz and Zuggtmoy still stood, looking as menacing as ever. The four hallways that led to the demi-planes were completely collapsed and inaccessible. The crack in the floor, now a wide fissure, continued past the altar into the room beyond, where the treasure chests were located (which had previously triggered demons to be summoned). There were still four chests in the room. One was open and empty (having been previously looted by the party the first time through), one was broken across the floor with its contents spilled out, just as the party left it when they ran away to escape the demons. One was still closed and another was now open, showing the 25,000 or so platinum pieces ready for the taking. Othmar was about to start filling his pockets when Jarrus shouted for him to stop. "Messing around with these chests is what got us in trouble last time," he said. "Don't touch anything." As if they needed more warning, there were two new, sinister additions to the room. On opposing walls, two human bodies were nailed, their skin peeled away and tacked to the wall in a gruesome display. Their cloaks were intact, black druid cloaks, similar to ones worn by mysterious men the party had seen before. Their blood was dry, but otherwise these bodies were reasonably fresh.

The party moved forward, now entering an area never explored before. A round room and a dias that previously held a throne. Both were ripped apart by the fissure that ran through the middle of the floor. Here, the air was even colder, coming up from the hole now in the floor, where a strange purple glow could be seen. The fissure exposed a staircase below the temple, though this appeared to be the work of someone or something entirely different. Dardac noticed that there were human footprints here, going down, and the party decided to follow into the depth far below the Temple of Elemental Evil.

The stairs went down more than 100 ft. into the cold darkness. Only a very faint purple glow illuminated anything, and the continual light the party had been using seemed only to brighten an area of 5 feet around them. At the bottom of the stairs, they came to a hall leading south to an octagonal room with four exits (north, south, east and west) including the way they came in. Inside that room, laying against the wall on the east side, were two dead bodies. These bodies also seemed somewhat fresh, and were dressed in the black druid cloaks that have become familiar. As the party began to look around, a voice boomed out of nowhere saying "LOOK ABOVE YOU TO KNOW YOUR FATE."

Jarrus looked up and the domed ceiling became translucent, revealing an infinite violet hue through which floated glowing black runes. Jarrus was immediately able to understand the runes, which said:

"Those whom I find unfit, I place on my left"

"Those who succeed, I place on my right"

"The chosen may come before ME!"

The ceiling then faded to black and became opaque again.

(DM's Note: Clearly there is a dungeon on top of which the Temple of Elemental Evil was built. Which dungeon this is might seem obvious to some, but I'd like it to remain a mystery for my players, so no discussing it in the comments, please.)

Jarrus decided this meant they should go right (west), and off they went down a short hallway into a hexagon shaped room. Within this room were five strange formations, resembling small trees. An opalescent black tree, a deep green tree, a metallic crimson tree, and indigo blue tree and a smoky purple tree. Each tree had fruit-like growths on it. Jarrus picked one of the fruits and it crumbled to dust in his hand, and he took some form of damage. Othmar tried to do the same and the fruit again crumbled, but Othmar didn't take damage and instead seemed, somehow, changed for the better. Jarrus tried again and took damage again, and decided it was best to stop messing around with the trees and brought everyone back to camp for healing and rest. Othmar, now curious, decided they should return and start picking multiple fruits to experiment with and, so, the next morning they returned to experiment. Othmar's experimentation did not go so well, as, after picking one particular fruit, a blackness started to crawl up his arm, disintegrating him as it went. Jarrus, acting quickly, cut-off Othmar's arm before the mage was entirely disintegrated. Othmar was now one-armed, unconscious and barely hanging on to life. But this didn't stop Jarrus and Dardac, both of whom picked fruits of their own without taking damage and felt much better about themselves for it. NOW, they were done with this place, and decided it was time to abandon this dungeon and go to Furyondy.

And so they carried Othmar's unconscious body to the surface where Janziduur healed him (though she couldn't fix his arm) and they took their boat back to Verbobonc. In Verbobonc, Jarrus put up money with the Temple of Trithereon to advertise for adventurers to come down to the area around the temple and help clear it out of monstrous infestations (though no words about the temple itself). After that, they took the boat up to Stalmaer in the Gold County of Furyondy.

Part 2 - Off to Furyondy

It has been known to the party for a while that Jarrus' mother is Countess Kyaren Rhavelle of the Gold County in Furyondy. She left her adventuring partner and lover, Jarrus' father, Correal Sunleaf, when Jarrus was still pretty young. The Countess' older brother had died, leaving no heir, and so she left her family behind in order to take her place in the political landscape and protect her family's legacy. Jarrus stayed with his father, who was now a cavalier without a lord, being trained in the ways of warfare and chivalry. With his father dead, Jarrus was now returning to the only family he has.

The first stop was the town of Stalmaer, along the Att River (a tributary to the great Velverdyva). Jarrus tried asking around there about the whereabouts of the countess, which only drew suspicions from the local militia. They then decided to travel up to Libernen, the seat of government for the Gold County. There, they approached the palace gates and, after some discussion with the guards regarding who Jarrus was, were let in to meet with the chamberlain/butler, a tall man in colorful garb named Jorgen. Jorgen informed Jarrus that the countess was not in the palace, but was currently at her country estate. A carriage was summoned, along with servants for the trip and four knights to escort the party (not that they needed an escort, but protocol for VIPs was being employed).

After a few days, the party arrived by coach to the Ravelle estate, nestled in the beautiful countryside of the Gold County. Upon pulling up to the estate, they were greeted once again by Jorgen (who must have used some form of magical teleportation to beat them here) and they were led inside to the great hall. Inside were several people who looked like nobles or other people of importance, drinking wine eating food. Soon, Countess Ravelle came down the stairs, eager to great her long lost son. Jarrus bowed to her formally, rather than embrace her as she wished. Nonetheless, the countess was pleased to see her son and began introducing him to the others in the room with great pride. Some of the folks in the room were:

• Baron Jemian of Littleburg
• Gellain, Ambassador from Veluna
• Rafendyl, "Gildentongue" - Half-elf bard from Highfolk
• Schyzer - a human mage who seemed uninterested in socializing
• Jelleneth - a young human woman who serves Trithereon and appears to be a fighter of some repute
• Sir Kiprien Rahlden - Knight of the Hart from Castle Hart
• Tobian Rushkane - A flamboyant Backluni man

There were several other petty nobles and merchants in the room, but Jarrus was not introduced to them all.

DMs Note: It is now the 10th Day of Patchwall, CY 580. Jarrus and his group will move to an online game as they do a lot of social interaction with the countess and her guests. These interactions will likely not make it into the blog, so we will pick-up with this group again when and if they get back into a tabletop-worthy adventure.

6th Day of Brewfest, CY 580 - Continuing in the Glacial Rift

It seems like most of our sessions lately have been 5 hours of mostly one big fight. This was no different. Giants have a lot of hit points and take time to kill . . .

The party searched around the smelly cave of the yetis and found two sleeping snow leopards up on an ice shelf. The floor in the area was smooth as glass and very slick, so the party knew better than to walk in and get pounced on when they fall on their backs. Cadwin decided to charm one of the leopards, which worked because it woke up and didn't attack him. Unfortunately, Cadwin had no way to communicate with the charmed creature and Pontus, who looked like a delicious meal, was standing right next him. The leopard pounced on Pontus, who was forced to kill the animal, but not before the second leopard woke up and pounced as well. The barbarian only suffered minor injuries before the rest of the party jumped in and helped finish off the other leopard. After using a Spider Climb spell to get to the ice shelf, the group determined there was nothing of value, and decided to move on.

Heading south along the rift ledge, they reached another series of caves. Cadwin's superior hearing determined that there were giants in these. Sarril cast Invisibility 10 ft. Radius so they could sneak inside and get surprise on the giants. The plan was successful, and Bukro was finally able to show the party what he could do with a triple backstab (the answer was over 100 points of damage and enough to kill a giant). Unfortunately, it was a one-time move that then leaves him exposed. With more giants coming up from another corridor, the group quickly found themselves facing 10 giants. It was a difficult fight which consumed most of the party's remaining healing and other spells, but they managed to prevail.

Knowing they were running low on spellpower and hit points, the party needed to rest of the evening. They decided split into two groups. Cadwin, Luapan and Sarril would search within the caves where the giants came from while Dalron, Pontus and Bukro (all three with 18 strength) worked outside to pile giant bodies in front of the cave entrance. As the three fighters worked on giant bodies, 6 more giants came up from the south along the edge of the rift. Knowing they couldn't take them all on without help, Pontus and Dalron turned the corner to try to ambush them as they came by, while Bukro made a run for it into the cave structure to alert the spellcasters. Unfortunately, half of the giants chased Bukro, and with their long strides were able to catch up to him. One giant cut him down, but just as he went down, he used his innate magical ability to summon four Dancing Lights in the shape of an exclamation point, and sent it 120 ft. down the hall. That turned out to be within 10 ft. of the distance needed for Sarril to see them.

While Dalron and Pontus fought brave and hard, Sarril cast Fly, grabbed Luapan and sped down the hall toward Bukro. Seeing the drow lying bleeding on the floor, Luapan immediately cast a healing spell on him while Sarril read a scroll of Repulsion. It turns out that Repulsion was a great spell to use in this situation. All three giants in the hall were pushed out of the cave complex and over the rift, falling to their deaths. That left only three more to deal with, which wasn't too hard. Unfortunately, at the end of the battle, most of the party was severely injured and there were no healing spells left at all. The party realized they needed to get out of the rift if they were going to properly recuperate, so they promptly exited.

With a barbarian, a ranger and druid, finding a safe and secluded place to rest in the mountains wasn't difficult at all. They went into a small cave away from the rift and rested for two whole nights. They are very aware that the hill giants they were trying to beat here will have likely arrived by now, but there was little they could do about it. They had killed 22 frost giants in total, which they figured was a good portion of their forces, so they've struck a blow either way.

It is now the morning of the 1st Day of Patchwall, and the party is ready to make another foray.

5th day of Brewfest, CY 580 - Now to pay those frost giants a visit. . .

The party had to decide what to do with nearly 100 freed orc slaves, an elf and human prisoner, and a ton of paperwork - evidence of what the giants have been up to. They also knew that some of the hill giants escaped, and could be on their way to frost giant jarl to warn him. They estimated the giants would get there in a couple of days and the party had no way of catching up to them, but they could beat them there if they used the teleportation device they found. Doing so would leave the prisoners at the mercy of the orcs, who could not be trusted, and no one reporting back to Lashton in Istivin about what was found. They toyed with the idea of sending the orcs after the escaped giants, but again realized that not being able to trust them was problematic and they didn't want to replace raiding giants with raiding orcs. In the end, they talked to the orcs, who agreed to return to their tribes, and decided to send the elf and the merchant prisoner to Lashton to report. It turns out the elf prisoner, whose name is Oaklock Gilderlief, is a capable fighter/magic user and the party had plenty of extra equipment to give him, including a spellbook for which he was forever grateful and indebted (its good to have allies in the world). With Oaklock on his way to report to Lashton, the party used the magical chain they found to teleport to the Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl Grugnir. They hoped that getting there before the hill giants arrived would allow them to sneak in unexpectedly.

The plan seems to have worked. They found themselves high up in the southern Crystalmist Mountains standing on an ice shelf with cold wind whipping through their hair, but otherwise nothing around. Giant tracks were obvious in the snow on the ground, telling them they must be in the right place. They followed the ice shelf as it sloped down along a fissure. This must be what was meant by the Glacial Rift on the map they found. Speaking of maps, among the papers they found in the hill giant chief's war ready room was a map of the rift itself. (The map didn't tell the players much, but it sure made the DM's job easier).

When the party realized that any one of them could slip and fall on the ice and potentially fall to their death, they decided to tie ropes around their waists and connect themselves to each other. At least several of them would have to fall in order to for the whole party to go. Pontus, who was used to these conditions, pulled out a pair of manticore spikes to use as ice picks should he slip. The only one who had trouble was Dalron, and after several slips and the party struggling to get him to his feet, Luapan decided to cast levitation on him and pull him along like a balloon. That worked fairly well.

The shelf continued down some stairs near, but not quite all the way, to the bottom of the rift. From there, the shelf continued around the rim of the rift and led to a series of caves to be explored. Sarril cast Invisibility 10 ft radius and they all went, invisibly, still tied together, into the first side cave. They found a total of seven frost giant guards, not quite on duty. Four in one room, three in another. Guessing that fireballs and other massive area of affect spells might cause a cave collapse, they decided a sneak attack by the melee fighters was in order. They wanted to see what the drow could do. Unfortunately, the drow, even with his attack bonuses for backstabbing, couldn't hit the first frost giant. He was, however, now visible, and the rest of the party had to cut the ropes connecting them and leap into battle. Of course, Dalron is still a giant-killing machine and Pontus can still take a ridiculous amount of damage and, between the two of them, they soon took out the three giants in the first room.

The noise brought the other four, but Sarril and Cadwin were ready with lightning bolts, which seemed safe enough with the ice. It wasn't enough to kill them all, but it did enough damage that Dalron finished them off in short order. Seven 14 HD frost giants down - easy peazy.

Exploring further they came across a winter wolf mated pair and their three pups. Cadwin sprung into action, casting Animal Friendship on the male and asking it to communicate to its family that the party are its friends. It worked, and the party now has a whole family of winter wolves for now. Around the corner were eight bodies frozen in ice blocks, each holding something of potential value. They understood the breaking or melting these blocks could cause a cave-in. Not only that, but the chance of collapse would be cumulative for each block destroyed. If the party wanted something, they needed to prioritize the order. Luapan cast Detect Magic to determine which blocks contained magic and Pontus used his newly acquired flametongue sword to melt those first. One body looked like a cleric, but with a holy symbol no one recognized (a hand clutched around an eye), and was wearing a ring of fire resistance. Another body had a wand and another a scroll. The party had the smart idea to have the smart idea to have the winter wolves re-freeze the bodies after the melted them to restore the ice column and fill in the cracks that were forming. That actually worked and reset the percentage chance of collapse after the first two bodies were recovered, after which the winter wolves had exhausted their breath weapons for the time being. The last body they were able to recover was wearing a full suit of magical plate mail, but just as Pontus got the body out (he was sliding the bodies out of the room), the room collapsed on his. Pontus took considerable damage, but the party was able to dig him out.

After this, the party headed back to the stairs and crossed over to the other side of the rift. They entered a cave that had a foul, musty smell. As they moved closer to explore, a horrifying creature carrying a magical longsword leapt at the party to attack. This foul beast was intelligent, had white fur and piercing blue eyes drove fear into everyone who looked at it. But no one had to look at it for
long as Dalron quickly dropped it where it stood. It's tremendous howl, however, brought six more from the other room. These were not carrying swords, instead swiping ferociously with their claws. Pontus soon learned when these things got both claws on someone, they grabbed and squeezed, doing both physical and cold damage. The cold damage was reduced, thanks to a Protection from Cold that Luapan had earlier cast, but that was little comfort when being crushed to death. But the party was soon victorious again, though starting to burn through healing spells.

And there it was that another session reached its scheduled end. It is the morning of the 6th Day of Brewfest, CY 580 and the party just killed 7 yetis. This fun is just getting started.

4th day of Brewfest, CY 580 - Trapped beneath the hill giant fortress

The party rested in the dungeon below the hill giant's stronghold. Sarril had a rough night, being haunted by strange dreams of purple and green mists, tentacles and the feelings of insanity. In the morning, both Sarril and Luapan discovered that their connections to their respective gods is more difficult and prayers for spells took twice as long. Additionally, clerical healing spells seemed to be weakened (possibly other divine magics as well).

Once rested and healed up, the party decided to search the dungeons thoroughly, hoping to find another way out. In a previously unsearched room, they found a secret door leading to a hallway full of levers. Another secret door at the end of that hallway led to a large room with portcullis gates, which they assumed the levers controlled. Behind one of the portcullis gates were a pair of insane manticores which attacked the party with their spikes. Although the spikes don't do a lot of damage each, the two manticores were throwing 16 spikes per round, most of which were hitting Cadwin.

Pontus began carving the beast up for a trophy as the rest of the party searched the room beyond. Another room to the north appeared to have some chests within, guarded by two more manticores, calling for another brief fight. Once the maticores were dispatched, Pontus opened the chests, taking on the traps with his superior poison save. Dalron managed to recover some of the spikes and throw them right back at one of the manticores, killing it. As easy as that was, for some reason the party thought the best course of action to kill the other manticore would be to open the gate, causing the large beast to leap on top of Dalron and claw and bite at him. Fortunately, Dalron's superior armor class prevented the manticore from doing any damage and he was able to finish it off as well.

Sarril had earlier cast "Detect Traps," showing that two of the chests were trapped. Not having a thief who could disable traps, however, the party chose to have Pontus open the trapped chests, using his superior hit points and poison saves. The first trap was a blade on a spring that nearly severed a limb, but a lucky roll of the die meant he only took damage. The nest trap was a poison needle, which, thanks to his barbarian constitution, didn't manage to kill him. There were seven chests in all, filled with platinum, gold, electrum and silver coins as well as jewelry. All seven chests went into the portable hole.

Continuing to explore the area, and using Sarril's Find Traps spell to avoid several traps, the party was able to find another set of secret doors leading to another treasure room. This was turning out to be quite the lucrative adventure. In this other room, they found a map and a magical chain, with instructions written in the giant tongue. Since Dalron could read the giant's language, he was able to determine that the chain would transport up to 6 people to the Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl. Based on earlier documents found, it seems these frost giants were co-conspirators in the attacks on Sterich and Geoff. The party discussed this and decided not to immediately make the trip, but to finish searching the dungeon, specifically an area where the hallway had been intentionally blocked off. They first spoke to the orc slaves they previously freed, asking if they knew what was beyond the blocked off area and if they knew what the giants were searching for with all of the digging. Although the orcs could not say what the giants were looking for, they did say that a strange temple was uncovered on the other side of the wall and that troglodytes had been attacking and harassing them, hence why the tunnel was blocked. The party asked the orcs to help unseal the tunnel while they explore the other side, which the orcs only agreed to do if they could seal the tunnel behind them.

And so the party began exploring another area of the dungeon. They didn't get very far before they found the temple that was alluded to. Cadwin began feeling his way around and was immediately chilled by the cold walls. Pontus could see to the far side of the temple, behind an altar was a wall with shifting, amorphous/swirling purple and green hues that induced nausea to look at. Remembering a similar wall in a temple the party had found in some caves between Hommlet and the Temple of Elemental Evil, which nearly drove the barbarian insane, Pontus decided to leave the room rather than deal with anything inside. Cadwin, who became overwhelmed with nausea just by touching the walls, also decided it was best to leave. And so the party left, not even exploring the rest of the dungeon area, but clearing the blocked hallway and returning to safety on the other side.

It is worth mentioning at this time that the day was nearly over, and we had a new player in the group whose character was not yet introduced. The group was fairly confident that this player's character would be found somewhere in the dungeon and the player, who had grown impatient, blurted out a clue that led the party back to explore a cistern that they previously only partially investigated.

In the cave that held the cistern was an opening in the south and north wall. Water from a stream flowed from the north, into the cistern, which then overflowed to another stream that went out the south end of the cave. Cadwin had previously explored the south tunnel and part of the north tunnel, but this time decided to explore the north tunnel further, finding that it opened up into a large natural cavern with an underground river flowing through it. The stream that filled the cistern flowed from the larger river. The party decided to all crawl through the tunnel and explore the cavern beyond. The river flowed from the northeast, where another chamber of the cavern could be seen, but there was no way to walk there. Using a combination of levitate spells and spider climb spells, however, the party was able to make their way over the river and through.

On the other side, they saw a carrion crawler with a drow elf in its tentacles, about to eat it for dinner.

The party sprung into action, doing what they do best and killing the giant bug, freeing the paralyzed drow. Before they were safe, two more of the things popped up out of the ground, paralyzing Pontus before themselves being killed. The party decided to disarm and tie-up the elf before making camp to rest.

That night, the elf awoke during Sarril's watch. Sarril questioned him and he explained that his name was Bukro Shrazino from the hidden drow city of Ust Natha. He explained that he serves the wizards of Ust Natha, who do not worship Lolth, and was sent to spy on the noble houses of Erelhei-Cinlu - specifically House Eilservs, who seem to have tapped into some great unknown power. Unfortunately, Bukro was discovered, and inadvertently revealed (due to ESP) the location of Ust Natha, which was destroyed by magma a few months ago in what seemed like a natural disaster, but with suspicious timing. And Bukro was not the only one suspicious. There was one lone survivor from Ust Natha, a human sage who lived among the drow wizards who went by the name of Lucas. Lucas told Bukro that he suspects House Eilservs was behind the disaster, and that it was more important than ever that someone discover the secret to their power, which threatens both the underdark and the surface world. Lucas told Bukro that House Eilservs is orchestrating giants to attack the surface world as part of a larger unknown scheme. If he could find out the purpose of the giant attacks, it may lead him to some much needed answers. And so, Bukro came up from the underdark seeking the hill giant chief's stronghold when he was attacked by a carrion crawler.

The story was interesting, but it wasn't until Cadwin cast Detect Alignment to confirm that Bukro was not evil that the party decided to trust him. They invited him to join them as they share a quest to investigate the giant menace. Not wanting to travel into the underdark, and not wanting to explore the rest of the caves beyond the uncovered temple, the party decided it would be best to dig their way to the surface. Since another day had passed, the raging inferno upstairs was little more than smoldering ash. Using the Dig spell, Sarril was able to remove the collapsed rubble at the top of the stairs and make a path back to the surface. It was the first time that Bukro had ever seen sunlight, and it blinded him and burned his skin. Cadwin gave him a cloak and helped protect his exposed skin and his eyes eventually adjusted (for the most part).

It is the morning of the 5th Day of Brewfest and the Badass Motherfuckers are now a party of 6, standing in the foothills of the Jotens where the Steading of the Hill Giant Chief Nosnra once stood.

2nd Day of Brewfest, CY 580 - Round 2 with the hill giants

The party ran through the double doors from the hill giant's hall and into the courtyard, shutting the wizard-locked door behind them. They decided to run up into the watch tower to take a break and discuss their next steps. While up there, Cadwin and Sarril were able to cast a few healing spells on the fighters, giving the party a fighting chance. Feeling strong now, they decided to rush back in and finish the job they started, before the giants could heal up and regroup.

Dalron took a peek behind the double doors to look down the hall and he saw two hill giants in armor, carrying swords and talking to a third hill giant in much nicer armor, carrying an even nicer sword. This giant was fairly handsome, especially for a hill giant, and not at all out of shape like the others. This giant spotted Dalron peeking through the doors and decided to call him out. "Are you your party's champion!? Come face me alone, one on one." Dalron shut the door as the giant called out that he was a coward. The party decided to make a hasty retreat.

Unfortunately, the time spent in the tower was long enough that four remaining ogre guards, led by two hill giants, were able to leave through a side door and come around to the front. They were intending to chase the party down the road, but were able to determine they were in the courtyard and approached the entrance. As Pontus opened the door to escape, he was met with two of the ogres who immediately attacked. The ogres were easy, but the two hill giants behind them took longer to bring down, giving the three hill giants inside time to go around the wizard-locked door and approach them at the rear. While the party struggled to finish off the last giant in front of them, they sustained a volley of boulders being thrown from behind. They were able to finally bring the last one down and break into a full run (with Cadwin, of course, turning into a bat). Sarril stopped just outside of the doors, however, balancing on some of the rocks beside the road. When the two giants emerged and prepared to throw more boulders at him, he started to prepare the Meld to Stone spell. One rock crashed nearby - miss. Then another rock crashed nearby - second miss. Then Sarril flipped the birds and disappeared into the stone. The two confused giants stared at the rocks, trying to figure out where Sarril went as the rest of the party ran as fast as they could down the road. Shortly thereafter, the handsome giant emerged and yelled at the other two "Nevermind him! Kill the others!" At which point, they threw some more rocks at the party, but the rest of the party was soon out of range and disappearing into the wilderness.

Having a druid, a barbarian and a ranger pretty much guarantees the party will have an easy time out of doors. They easily found a small cave where they could safely hide while they heal up and figure out their next move. They decided to spend two days resting before heading back. The first day was to maximize healing and the second day to prepare their next assault. They decided on return to approach the compound under the protection of an Invisibility 10 ft Radius spell, bringing a summoned fire elemental and earth elemental in tow. They sent both elementals at the front door, while they all headed to a side door. Although the remaining giants were now fully armed and armored and keeping watch, they still weren't quite prepared for this. Boulders were useless against the elementals that require magical weapons. They did see the handsome hill giant and several more come out another side door and head over to confront the elementals, guessing that it is possible he might be able to handle them, but even so, it will be a distraction long enough for them to get inside and explore the place. For the most part, they had unfettered access.

The first thing they discovered was a kennel full of 14 dire wolves. Cadwin cast animal friendship on one of them and tried in vain to have it convince the others to join the party (the selected wolf was, unfortunately, not the alpha). They decided to keep the dire wolves locked away and come back later after exploring the rest of the fortress. As they made their way in, looking into empty storage rooms, dining rooms with some raid maps and other papers (which they collected) and a kitchen where some hill giants were cooking a meal, they started to smell smoke. After a few more turns of searching, the smoke was getting stronger. It was clear that the fortress was now on fire.

As they continued to explore, looking for the chief's bedroom, they came across some stairs going down and decided to take them. This led, unexpectedly, to a lower level dungeon with many passages. Following one of the passages east led to a hall full of dungeon cell doors, with bugbear guards keeping watch. Still under the invisibility spell, the party slipped past, following the sounds of hammers on metal coming from the end of another hall. There they saw six dwarves chained to forges making giant sized weapons. Directing these dwarves was another dwarf in plate armor wielding a vicious battleaxe. Guarding the room were two fire giants with flaming swords. The party decided this is where they would drop the invisibility and get into a fight. While still invisible, the party moved into a semi-circle around the dwarven task master. With Cadwin facing north and Sarril facing west, they both unleashed a lightning bolt at the same time, one at each giant, criss-crossing in the middle to get a double hit on the dwarf. The dwarf failed both saving throws and the damage was devastating. As the dwarf stood, clinging to his last breath, he swung twice at Sarril, making him feel the full force of his axe before Pontus appeared and finished him off. Now the party only had the two giants to worry about.

The good news about the fire giants is that they only attacked once per round. The bad news is that they never missed, and they did about 25 points of damage per hit. They also had 80 hit points a piece, so even with all of Dalron's giant-killing bonuses, it took a few rounds to bring them down, during which Pontus took a lot of damage. After killing the giants, the party started to heal themselves up and free the chained dwarves, at which time four bugbears appeared at the end of the hallway. Sarril immediately threw a fireball, killing three of them as the fourth started to run away. Dalron threw a dagger into its back, dropping it before it reached the intersection and alerted more guards.

The party learned from the dwarves that this dungeon houses orc slaves that the giants use as labor. There were another three rooms down this hallway that contained 48 orc slaves that were ready to turn on their masters. The party decided to give them the bugbear's weapons and send them on their way. After opening a few more cell doors and adding to their numbers, the orcs charged ahead to the bugbear guard quarters where a massive fight broke out. The party used the distraction as an opportunity to explore some more of the underground passages.

One hallway led to a passage that was walled off by boulders, which the dwarves said the giants walled it off for some reason. The dwarves stated they had seen troglodytes at one time, so the wall was most likely something erected to keep them at bay. Another hallway led to smaller 10x10 jail cells, one of which held a crazy man and another of which held an elf who claimed to be part of an adventuring party that came after the giants but got captured instead. The rest of his group now dead, he would be very happy to join the heroes if they would have him. Dalron decided he could not be trusted, and sent him to hang out of the freed dwarves.

One room opened up into the quarters of what the party assumed is the hill giant torturer, based on a torture chamber they had come across earlier. As Pontus opened the door, he was immediately jumped by two carnivorous apes who started tearing into his flesh. The apes were brought down soon enough, but their master, a wicked old hill giant, hunched over with only one eye, followed right up. He carried an especially sharp axe that he was able to do a lot of damage with. Pontus stood toe to toe with him in the doorway to protect the rest of the party while Dalron did his thing with throwing daggers. The fight was over soon, but the party was starting to feel a bit rough and decided to go back upstairs and out so they can rest up.

Heading upstairs, they quickly became overcome by smoke from the fire. The fortress was fully engulfed at this point. They had to turn back downstairs and look for another way out. Aside from the blocked passage, there were still two more unexplored passages to check. The first led to a cistern which the party decided was best not to investigate. The second had several branches, each of which led to a dead end where it looks like laborers had been recently digging - for what wasn't quite clear. A few of the dead ends widened out into large rooms and in one of the rooms was the giants from the kitchen taking refuge from the fire. The party left them alone and moved on.

This is where we left off. It is the 4th day of Brewfest, CY 580, and the party has to decide whether to find a way past the blocked passage, or wait things out down here until the fire burns out upstairs. 

28th Day of Harvester, CY 580 - A Party Defeated

Today it happened. What may have been the party's first significant defeat, and the first time they have been forced to retreat outside of the Temple of Elemental Evil. This time it was giants - and lots of them. So many, in fact, that we were unable to get all of the oversized miniatures on the board. This Sunday was mostly one very long, dragged out fight, and thus a short blog entry.

On the morning of the 28th Day of Harvester, the party departed Istivin and booked passage south along the Davish River, through Mittleberg, down to the town of Headwater nestled in the foothills of the Jotens. By staying on the boat, the group was able to avoid random encounters and getting sidetracked. On the morning of the 2nd Day of Brewfest, the party departed Headwater and began to trek into the foothills in search of the Steading of the Hill Giant Chief.

With a ranger, barbarian and druid in the party, finding the steading was easy. Hill giants don't cover

tracks very well, and through a combination of aerial scouting and tracking, the party was able to see exactly where hill giant forces have been marching from. By late afternoon, the fortress was in sight.

Though there were signs of much activity at one time, the place was relatively quite right now. Sarril cast Invisibility in a 10 foot radius to cloak the party as they investigated the outside. There was a watch tower rising up from the building and although they couldn't see inside it, they could hear the sounds of snoring. The party decided to walk in the front doors, using their invisibility to gain surprise.

Inside the front entryway were two sleeping hill giants - sentries who appears to be passed out drunk. Dalron used his exceptional giant-slaying skills to kill them both quickly without making any sounds. He then headed up the stairs into the watch tower and found one more sleeping giant and did the same. So far, this was looking like an easy mission.

The party decided to take one of the small (by giant standards) doors in the southwest corner which opened into a hallway. Going forward into the first room, they found themselves in an armory full of helmets, shields and bits of armor pieces. All forged metal and sized for hill giants. Dalron, who has some expertise when it comes to giants and giant-kin, noted that this was highly unusual, as hill giants don't have the skills to forge weapons and armor. Someone must have supplied this. And there was not only a lot of it, it was clear there was once a lot more - likely outfitting the raiding parties currently attacking Gorna.

The party then moved forward into an adjacent room and found a large weapons stash. Similar to the armor, these swords and axes were forged by someone and supplied to the giants. A set of double doors connected this room to a large hallway. Cadwin cracked the double-doors open in order to listen. The sounds of singing and revelry were coming from down the hall and cracking open the door attracted the attention of some ogre guards, who came rushing into the room. The party hid behind weapons racks and attacked as soon as the ogres came in, killing them both in a single round before they could raise an alarm. Sarril invisibly stepped out into the hall to get a better look and saw a large gathering of giants in a great hall, feasting and reveling. There were at least 20 hill giants, 8 ogres (standing guard), a hill giant chief and his wife, a cave bear, a cloud giant and 3 stone giants. Sarril relayed this information to the party and they began making plans.

The plan consisted of Cadwin summoning a fire elemental to rush into the room and cause a lot of damage. The party would then take advantage of the resulting chaos to launch a surprise attack that would include a lot of mass damage spells from Sarril. The only difficulty being that summoning the fire elemental takes six rounds, and Cadwin wanted to summon it as close to giants as possible. This required keeping the door open for line-of-sight with the wall sconce being used as a conduit, and waiting six rounds as the fire began to grow into an elemental. The first couple of rounds went unnoticed, but about half-way through the summoning, the cloud giant noticed what was going on and attempted to cast a Dispel Magic (which failed) while the chief alerted all of the giants into action. The remaining 6 ogres charged down the hallway and into the room, where they were quickly killed, but now the giants were aware of the party (except for Sarril, who was still invisible, waiting for the right moment to unleash a fireball).

The fire elemental soon came to form, but Cadwin realized it would not be enough and quickly followed-up by summoning an earth elemental. Because elementals require magic weapons to hit, the ogres and hill giants could not damage them, but the stone giants and the giant chief were high enough hit dice to overcome that resistance and they focused their efforts on the elementals. The three stone giants went to work on the earth elemental as the chief used a large ballista to shoot at the fire elemental (doing only moderate damage). Sarril unleashed his first fireball on the stone giants, which was fairly devastating, but not enough to kill them before they took down the earth elemental.

Recognizing there was a spellcaster at the end of the hallway, the chief began barking orders and focusing his attention on Sarril. Overall, the hill giants, which are normally pretty dumb, were using some decent tactics thanks to having a leader present. Luckily for the party, none of them was a shaman that could heal or cast other spells. Only the cloud giant was a spellcaster, and even he was a 6th level caster with a limited number of spells.

Sarril kept himself alive by casting mirror image while continuing to unleash a barrage of spells - lightning bolts, Boccob's Rolling Thunder and fireballs. Cadwin joined in with lightning bolts of his own for devastating affect. Dalron used his thrown daggers and giant-killing bonuses to kill at least one giant every single round while Pontus drew the focus on the fight to himself and Luapan healed the party as needed. Overall, the teamwork the party showed was excellent, with each member playing to their strengths and helping each other for maximum effect. But in the end, the enemy's numbers were too great. Once both elementals were killed, all damage was focused on the party, and it added up very quickly. Soon, the spellcasters were out of spells and the party was dipping into healing potions. Sarril started to burn charges on his staff out of desperation, and it wasn't enough. The party needed to retreat.

Dalron held the door open on the far end of the hallway and cleared a path for escape. The party began slipping through the doors one at a time. The last to go was Sarril, who expended one last charge from his staff to cast a Cone of Cold at the hill giant chief. It was enough to knock him unconscious, but not outright kill him. There were, in total, four hill giants and the chief's wife remaining as Sarril ran out the doors. The wife ran to attend to her husband rather than give chase, allowing for what looks to be a clean escape (for now).

It is the afternoon of the 2nd Day of Brewfest, CY 580. The party has dealt a severe blow to the hill giant chief, but were unable to finish the job. They now must find a safe place to tend to their wounds and regroup so they can come up with a new plan. You can be sure the chief is doing the same.

16th Day of Harvester, CY 580 - Travelling south through Geoff

Over breakfast in the morning, the party spoke to the dwarves who made camp with them. These dwarves were from a clan in the Crystalmist, part of the once mighty Kingdom of Dumderim. The dwarves explain that one of their clan, a dwarf named Obmi, went seeking an artifact of great importance that was lost long ago. The artifact was rumored to be discovered by the Fire Giants in the Hell Furnaces, and when Obmi never returned, they believe him to be captured or killed. These six dwarves are a hunting party, seeking to find the location of the hidden lair of the Fire Giant King Snurr. They were tracking the pair of giants that the party had just killed in the hopes of capturing them and making them talk. They were not disappointed, however, as the giants are ancient enemies of the dwarves and they do not mourn their deaths.

The party explained that they were one their way to Istivin to investigate the black bubble, but have decided that they should assist in fighting the giants, as they are sure these things are connected. The dwarves offered some useful information by telling the party that the hill giants that have been relentlessly raiding Sterich, and are now marching north into Geoff, come from the Jotens - a small mountain range on Sterich's southern border. They did not know the exact location, but they were able to point out the general area where the Hill Giant Chief is believed to have his fortress. The party decided that with this information, plus their superior aerial reconnaissance, they should be able to find it easily. This was the push they needed to make their decision. As a small party, their best help would be infiltration and stopping the problem at it's source, rather than getting involved in a large-scale siege battle. And so they broke camp, said goodbye to the dwarves, and headed south.

They took a slight detour west in order to avoid running through the siege surrounding Gorna. This added an extra day of travel, but it was uneventful as the giant activity seemed to keep away any wandering monsters that might otherwise cause trouble. 

On the 18th Day of Harvester, three days after departing from the dwarves, the party entered the hills known as the Stark Mounds. Peace would be disrupted that evening by a visit from a group of soldiers who came into camp that evening. Luapan was on watch at the time, and he was already on edge from the eerie wailing sounds that had been disturbing him earlier. Luapan demanded that the soldiers identify themselves. One that appeared to be a leader identified himself as a captain in the Yeomanry army, and he didn't look friendly. Before he could state his intended warning, however, Luapan brandished his holy symbol and called upon the name of Celestian to rebuke the men before him. A bright light washed over all eight soldiers causing them to cringe in pain and, for a brief moment, cancelling out the illusion of living flesh, revealing the desiccated skeletons underneath.

These were swordwraiths - a unique undead creature from the World of Greyhawk that are somewhat infamous in the Stark Mounds (but are also found in other places where great battles have taken place). They had a resistance to being turned from their own burial sites, which was enough to avoid Luapan's strong rebuke. Now angry, they swarmed in on him while Luapan shouted for the others to

wake up. Cadwin, who was sleeping outside, woke immediately, as did his pet mastodon, but the rest of the party were inside a Leomund's Hut and did not hear the alarm. Luapan, Cadwin and the mastadon decided to fight, which proved to be a mistake. Each hit from these 7HD undead drained a point of strength, and they attacked twice every other round. The mastodon wasn't even able to damage them, as they required +2 magic weapons to hit.

Realizing they couldn't win this fight alone, Cadwin turned into a bat and flew away as Luapan cast Wind Walk and rushed to the door of the hut to warn the others. This left the enraged mastodon surrounded by the wraiths as it tried in vain to fight them. Though the wraiths did not kill the mastodon, they drained it of enough strength that it could no longer support its own weight, and it crashed to the ground. The wraiths then turned their attention to the now awake party that just emerged from the hut.

The battle was difficult. A combination of lightning bolts and magic missiles from Cadwin and Sarril did the most damage. Dalron realized quickly that his thrown daggers were useless and had to rely on a +3 mace that he was not as proficient with. Once Dalron's strength was drained, his melee attacks became of limited use. Pontus, on the other hand, relied on magical strength from his Gauntlets of Ogre Power, so the strength drain did not affect him so much. As a barbarian, he was able to damage these creatures even without a +2 weapon. Soon, the wraith numbers began to drop, and victory was in sight. As the last three, nearly destroyed wraiths were taking their last attack, one got a critical hit on Luapan, dropping him to -12 hit points (DM's Note: I have borrowed a new house rule from 5th edition in which I give a character a saving throw against a "killing blow." A failed save is death, but a success means that the player character is stuck at -10 HP and "clinging to life." They will have a chance to save each round to stay alive and any healing magic applied during this time will stabilize them.). Luapan managed to cling to life for one more round - long enough for Sarril to come to his rescue. Sarril noticed, as he cast his healing spell to save Luapan, that Luapan was holding a prayer bead and muttering something with his dying breath. The prayer bead turned to dust and disappeared.

By the next round, all of the wraiths were gone. Sarril continued to cast healing spells on Luapan until he was able to move again. As the party gathered themselves together and assessed the situation, they noticed what looked like a really bad storm begin to form directly overhead. Thick, ominous clouds began to swirl and coalesce. Lightning began to strike around the campsite. The party looked up and watched as a large metallic object began to emerge from the clouds. The object, unlike anything anyone had ever seen before, had flashing lights all around it. A door slid open on the underside of the object and a staircase extended from it and touched the ground. As the party looked on in awe, Sarril began furiously documenting what he saw, having a vague sense of familiarity and trying to remember where he saw something like this before. A figure emerged at the top of the stairs and began walking down toward the party. It was a tall man with blue skin, white eyes with no pupils, and no body hair. Wings appeared to be tucked behind it. Some of the party recognized this as a Planetar - a type of angel, but not dressed as expected. This one was in a full suit of very strange armor - the breast plate of which was recognized as the same that Luapan is wearing. It was wearing a belt with several objects attached to it, and on either side were objects that looked vaguely like hand-crossbows (at least from the handle and trigger) - though exotic and with no sign of an actual bow. This planetar carried no sword. It spoke in a booming voice that echoed all around "Who has summoned me!?"

Luapan dropped to his knees before this great being and declared that it was he who summoned it. He said that during his near-death experience, he felt cut-off from Celestian as his soul wandered through darkness, and he was frightened. During his crisis of faith, he called out for help. The Planetar responded "Celestian has not left you. When all other gods are gone from this world, Celestian will remain. You have been chosen for a special purpose, Luapan. The black bubble to the south threatens all life in this world. You must find the source and stop it. Only then will things return to the way they were."

Luapan stood up and said "Yes. I will complete this mission. I should not have lost faith. It won't happen again." With that, the planetar walked back up the staircase, the door closed, and the object in the sky disappeared. The clouds parted, leaving the party stunned by what they just witnessed. Sarril realized that the scene he just observed reminded him of a tapestry he saw hanging in the Temple of Celestian near Greyhawk.

The party realized they were not safe here in the Stark Mounds, and decided to immediately head out, not camping again until they were clear of the area a day and half later. It seemed that as long as they kept moving, the swordwraiths did not attack them again. Although exhausted they managed to clear the Stark Mounds and arrive in the lands of Sterich at the end of the 20th Day of Harvester. There, they camped and rested for the night. In the morning, those who had suffered loss of strength at the hands of the swordwraiths found some small amount of that strength recovered. They realized they would need four more days of this to be fully recovered, and set out looking for a village or abandoned farmhouse they could take hold in while they wait. They soon came across the village of Hilden's Grange which has managed to avoid the wrath of the giants (so far).

During their four-day stay at Hilden's Grange, a group of riders arrived wearing the insignia of King Skotti of Keoland. A proclamation was read, urging all able bodied and capable men to come to the service of the king to deal with threats to the kingdom. The party stepped forward, saying they were ready to help. They were directed to seek out the King's agent Lashton, in the manor of Alforas the Seer outside of Istivin and were given directions. As soon as the four days of rest were over, and the party was back at full strength, they headed out, arriving at Istivin on the evening of the 27th Day of Harvester. They immediately noticed that it was pitch black here - not a star nor either moon was in sight. The only light was that of very distant campfires from Keoish armies camped around the city. The party decided to camp for the night and seek out Lashton in the morning.

At the light of day, the situation was much more clear. Where the city of Istivin once stood, in its place was an arc of blackness which reflected no light whatsoever (making it look flat and surreal against its surroundings). Pontus, who had previous seen the affects of the black shards, immediately recognized the similarity. All of the color was drained from the land for miles around the bubble as well - much like the shards found in the forests, but on a much larger scale, and also not unlike the lands surrounding the Temple of Elemental Evil. The only parts of Istivin not covered by the bubble (at least not yet) were the very outer suburbs and farmlands, which were now covered in tents and crawling with Keoish soldiers. The party made their way down toward the city and followed the road that led up to the manor house of Alforas, the Seer.

Lashton, the King's Agent

Alforas, the Seer

On the way up, a few things were obvious. First, is that the armies camped around the city were in defensive positions facing toward the bubble. Secondly, and perhaps as important, there was a lot of movement and coordination in the works as a large number of the armies were packing up and marching west, back toward Keoland. The party made their way up to the manor house and, after being made to wait for a while, were ushered into a room with two men in robes who were arguing with each other - with one man, who appeared to carry some authority, telling the other man that his books were worthless. It was obvious to Sarril, even before introductions, that these two men were both powerful mages. They were then introduced as Lashton, agent of King Skotti of Keoland who has been entrusted with overseeing the investigation of the bubble, and Alforas, a local sage whose home has been commandeered to act as headquarters for the king's agents while the threat of the bubble is being assessed and dealt with. 

Seekers of the Arcane

Sarril picked up on some other obscure information about these two men which may explain why they were not getting along. Lashton wore a pin on his cloak that Sarril recognized as identifying him as part of an organization of mages known as the Seekers (or more formally, Seekers of the Arcane). This loose-knit group of mages seek artifacts and other ancient magics in order to unlock their secrets. While not necessarily evil, some of their members over the years have been known to have gone too far and become corrupted by dark magics. Much less is known about their ancient enemy, the obscure Silent Ones of Keoland, whose membership is unknown by even the most powerful wizards. The Silent Ones, who formed in the Sheldomar Valley after the fall of Vecna, dedicate their lives to finding ancient artifacts and other powerful magic and destroying it or securing it away in the hopes of preventing it from getting into the wrong hands. Sarril is only aware of their existence and purpose because of discussions he overheard during his apprenticeship with Otto of the Circle of Eight (the Silent Ones also seem to work at cross-purposes with the Circle), but his knowledge was just enough that he suspected that Alforas may be a member, in which case, he very well may be working to prevent Lashton from learning anything about the bubble.

On a table nearby was a map of the region in which someone had marked a path in red ink going northwest/southeast along the border between Keoland and the Principality of Ulek. Based on previous intelligence the party had gathered, this may be the path of the tarrasque, which was known to be rampaging in that area. If so, that may be the reason the king's armies were being sent back east.

Lashton was not a pleasant man, and seemed more preoccupied with asserting his authority than actually providing any useful information. He left it for Alforas to explain what is known about the bubble and how the party may help. Alforas explained that the bubble originally formed the citadel, immediately enveloping the Earl and his officials. "While the exact cause is unknown, there have been rumors. Some say that a mysterious stranger arrived with a gift for the Duke - a small box containing a magical device that went undetected by his mages, and which turned out to be a trap. Some say they witnessed a demon appear in the middle of the citadel one night and utter a terrible curse. And some say," he looks directly at Lashton as he says this, "it is the result of someone meddling with powerful magic that ought to have been left alone." Alforas went on to explain that the bubble has been growing slowly ever since it appeared. Because the citadel was enveloped first, Earl Querchard and the rest of the leadership of Sterich were cut-off, leading to immediate chaos. King Skotti sent troops to declare martial law and restore order, but any such order in the city has been short-lived as the bubble has continued to grow. Many people evacuated east to Keoland, while others pushed out into temporary shelters in the suburbs. Still, others chose to go inside the bubble and take their chances. It seems that anyone native to the area can freely enter the bubble, while anyone not native finds that it is solid and impenetrable. No human has ever emerged from the bubble, but on some nights, demonic creatures emerge and have to be dealt with by the troops. The king suspects these attacks are testing his troops and that a large attack is imminent.

But the more immediate threat, Alforas explains, are the giants who started invading several months ago. He believes that with the earl and his forces preoccupied with the bubble, this has given the giants, who have always had an enmity for the humans in the valley, an excuse to escalate from occasional raids into a full-scale attack. As long as this bubble is here, the king cannot expend resources to deal with the giants. But a group of strong and capable adventurers may be able to carry out a covert counter-attack against the hill giant chief directly and stop the attacks. This is why they have been summoned here. Of course the party agreed to seek out the hill giant stronghold and take care of the problem (which they were already planning to do anyway). In exchange, they are given all of the treasure they find tax-free.

And with that, they party departed on the next leg of their adventure. In search of the hill giant fortress in the Jotens. It is late morning on the 28th Day of Harvester, CY 580.

10th Day of Harvester, CY 580 - The rest of the party goes west

I now have the wonderful challenge of trying to keep timelines straight between two different parties within the same campaign. When last we saw Sarril, Pontus and Cadwin, they had decided to go investigate the black bubble around Istivin while Jarrus and some new party members focused on business around Verbobonc and Furyondy. It was on the 9th Day of Harvester, CY 580 that the full party attended Sir Jarrus' knighting ceremony, and on the 10th Day, Sarril, Pontus and Cadwin left for Istivin. Joining them were Luapan, who had just returned from the Temple of Celestian in the Kron Hills with a mission to find out more about this black bubble, and Dalron Sharpe, one of the rangers from Gareth's old party who was looking for a crew to connect with. These five are now the Sarril-led branch of the BAMF (given that it was Sarril who wanted to go on this mission first).

Wanting the make the trip as swift as possible, Sarril exchanged his favor with Lord Wilfrick to ask for magical teleportation for him and his four companions. Master Juehlim of the Silver Consortium agreed to perform a teleport, but informed Sarril that the town of Hochoch on the border between the Grand Duchy of Geoff and the Gran March would be as far as he would be willing to take them. Word within mage circles is that the black bubble around Istivin was disrupting both arcane and divine magics, and teleporting too close would be dangerous. Hochoch is located on the river Javan, which flows south toward Istivin, and the party could obtain transport by boat after the teleport.

What happened next was unexpected, even for Master Juehlim. While the teleportation was successful, it didn't seem instantaneous like it should have. As the party warped out of existence of the Prime Material Plane, they found themselves floating in an in-between place - somewhere between planes and dimensions, where purples tendrils of mist flowed around them. It felt like eternity in here, as the essence of this. . . place began to eat at their minds. But it wasn't forever, it only felt as if it was. Soon, reality began to penetrate the mist as the sun pushed its way through as the party found itself standing in the middle of a field just down the road from a walled town that must be Hochoch.

This was not a town at peace. The party could clearly see two tent cities. One along the southwest wall looked like a refugee camp, while one along the west and northwest was an obvious army encampment. At first glance it looked like the city was under siege, as the army's banners did not match those on the city gates, but further study showed that this army was setup in a defensive position facing away from the city. The party headed down the road toward the city.

The City of Hochoch

As they approached the gates, they could see the walls were heavily manned with archers - far more than reasonable in a time of peace, with a combination of obvious veterans and freshly conscripted men. Nearby, workers were busy patching a section of wall that had collapsed, and the patchwork repair was very rough, focusing on getting the hole filled rather than trying to match the surrounding stonework. In the fields outside of town, facing westward, the army was building additional crude fortifications. Dalron asked the gate guard what was going on.

The gate guard was surprised that the party was not aware of the giant attacks which had been occurring all across Geoff and Sterich over the last 6 months. Being the city furthest east within the Duchy, and somewhat protected by being nestled between the two forks of the Javan River, Hochoch was the last city remaining that hasn't been devastated, hence citizens from around the Duchy were seeking refuge here. It was clear from the hole in the city wall that Hochoch was starting to sustain attacks of its own, and the city was making a last stand. The party announced to the guards that they were here to help with the giant problem, and we told to go see Lord Knight Protector Armstide at the citadel. And so off they went.

On the way through the city, Pontus was feeling upbeat and winking at all of the women he saw on the street. He decided to flip a gold piece to a particularly attractive young woman, but when he reached into his pouch, he pulled out a dead rat. All of his gold was gone. This put the party on high-alert, especially Sarril, who is generally the most nervous party member. His concern was well-placed, as just before the party reached the citadel, the Magic Mouth alarm Sarril had on his bags went off. A halfling who had been reaching into the bag took off running, but Pontus was able to grab him. The party questioned the halfling, using some effective intimidation, and learned that the party had been "marked" by the local thieves guild for reasons unknown - and no amount of protection payment was going to help. While the rest of the party wanted to bang down the front door of the guild and confront the problem head-on, Sarril suggested they just speak to the local lord as quickly as possible and then get out of town. Messing with a thieves guilds is not a can of worms Sarril was prepared to open at this time.

The party eventually made their way to the gates of the citadel where they spoke to the guards outside about their business. As they were removing their weapons to check at the gate, one of the guards inside the gate fired a crossbow bolt at Pontus, which missed. The guard looked horrified and insisted that he was just adjusting the sights when it misfired. Cadwin's keen ears picked up the sound of someone casting a spell nearby, though it was impossible to pinpoint a direction surrounded by all of this stone. Inside the citadel, the party was able to eventually meet with Lord Knight Protector, Sir Horace Armstide, Knight of the March.

Sir Armstide explained that giant raiding parties have been coming out of the mountains for a little more than six months now, attacking villages and cities all throughout Geoff and its southern neighbor, Sterich. The raids began in Sterich, but King Scotti of Keoland sent armies to surround Istivin - mostly concerned about what might come out of the black bubble there - the giants turned their attention further north. Though the bulk of the raids have been hill giants, which are commonly found in the foothills of the Sheldomar Valley, they have recently been bolstered by Frost Giants (believed to come down from the higher peaks of the Crystalmist Mountains) and, occasionally, Fire Giants (from the southern Hell Furnaces). The capital city of Gorna, seat of Grand Duke Owen I, is currently under siege and the rest of Geoff has been devastated, leaving Hochoch the last defensible city within the Ducky. Sir Armstide was sent by Commandant Vrianian of the Gran March to protect Hochoch, which he is able to do, but he does not have the resources to lead any sort of counter-offensive. The party stated they would investigate the source of these invasions and take care of the problem at its source - an offer which met with approval from Sir Armstide. With this, the party was on their way.

Wanting to avoid whatever trouble was stalking them inside the city, Sarril used the Fly spell to transport everyone over the walls within the citadel to a riverbank outside of town to the north. In the meantime, Cadwin went to the druid grove inside the city to see if he could learn the whereabouts of Delvin and Kella (druids from Hommlet, sent by Jaroo to investigate the black bubble). He learned that they did come this way just about a year ago, but haven't been heard from since. He also learned, thanks to his familiar scouting around through the refugee areas, that while the refugees were happy to have Sir Armstide's protection, the citizens of Hochoch were not happy with the current situation at all. They see his presence as an armed occupation from the Gran March, and, although it wasn't immediately obvious to the party, who were treated quite well upon arrival, the city is actually under strict martial law. With all of the surrounding farmlands being effectively wiped out, food supplies were dwindling fast, and severe rationing was being enforced across the city, putting the citizens further against the occupation and the refugees. But none of these political problems would be solved without addressing the current threat, and so off the party went, hoping to track the giants back to their source.

Looking for the Giants

Tracking giants isn't very hard - especially not with a ranger and a barbarian in the party. The problem was figuring out which tracks to follow. Once the party crossed the western fork of the Javan River, giant tracks were everywhere. Some coming from the west, in the direction of the Crystalmists, but most coming from the south, in the direction of the Stark Mounds and the capital city of Gorna. The party headed south, coming into an area with stone monoliths - ancient Flan structures associated with the Old Faith. As the party walked through the area, they were ambushed by six hill giants who popped up out of crude trap doors they fashioned over holes in the ground (DMs Note: I, and the players, recognize how impractical this was for hill giants, but it was written in the module so I ran with it). The giants started throwing boulders at the party on a surprise round, but the ranger and barbarian are rarely surprised in their natural surroundings, and go to act immediately. This is the first time the party got to see Dalron Sharp in action. He immediately threw four daggers at two giants, for an insane amount of damage, dropping them both. Cadwin, who was flying above the party in eagle form, did a dive attack on another giant, with Pontus following up. The battles was over by the end of the second round, with very little damage taken - certainly nothing the two healers in the party couldn't easily fix. It looked like this was going to be an easy module.

DM's Note: Dalron Sharp is a ranger with 18/96 strength who has chosen to specialize in throwing knives as per Unearthed Arcana (or Second Edition rules). Specialization allows him to throw four daggers per round with +1 to hit and +2 damage per throw. His strength bonus (which applies to the thrown weapon) gives +2 to hit and +5 damage per throw, and because he is a ranger, he gets +1 per level (+7) damage against giants. This combined to four attacks at +3 to hit, at 15-19 damage per hit. With four attacks, his chances of rolling critical hits also goes up, and in this case, he rolled at least one critical (double damage) and one near critical (+1d4 damage). There was no doubt about it, this PC was built to kill giants. I also read an article after the session about something called "dart abuse" that became popular in early editions of D&D (https://forum.rpg.net/archive/index.php/t-552092.html). While that does appear to be happening here, I've decided to allow it to continue because I want the players to feel good about their characters and do heroic things. Also, they are now likely to encounter enemies employing the same tactics - so its all good. I am, however, putting two limitations on this. First I am only going to allow half strength bonus for thrown weapons, and even then, only at close range (in this case, it would have made little difference). Second, because of the speed at which the daggers are being thrown, the PC must declare all four targets in advance of the attacks. They cannot throw a dagger, wait to see how much damage it does, then throw the next dagger.

Further down the road, the party caught some fresh giant tracks and, feeling good about their chances, decided to chase the group down. There were ten hill giants on their way to a raid somewhere. The giants managed to see them coming, and started throwing boulders from 200 feet away. Fortunately, Cadwin, still in eagle form, was able to start dive-bombing them, forcing at least half of the giants to stop throwing boulders and pay attention to the large talons coming at them. Sarril was also able to move up just a bit and get a fireball lobbed in their direction, causing significant damage. Pontus, with his insane barbarian speed, was able to quickly close the distance, preventing more of them from
throwing boulders. Sarril, with Dalron riding with him on an Ebony Fly, was able to get in very close before getting his by a boulder, knocking him unconscious. Dalron was able to jump free of the fly and avoid the damage, and next round close the distance on the giants and do his thing while Luapan focused on healing Sarril. Once Dalron was in the midst of the fight, the giants didn't stand a chance, and the battle was soon over. Although it was a close call for Sarril, otherwise, the party did pretty well, and had more than enough healing spells to restore everyone to full hit points.

Big Johan

Wanting a semi-safe place to spend the evening, Cadwin was able to scout out a small village down a side a road that seemed to have avoided the devastation that affected the other towns in the area. The party decided to check it out and found the place to be full of people and there was even an inn where they could get a fresh meal. While sitting at a table waiting for their dinner, the party noticed that a drunken man in the corner was harassing the serving wench. Dalron decided to step in and help, and his sheer size, combined with the backup of the rest of the party, made the man back off and leave the inn. A few minutes later, the server came around with a bottle of wine "on the house" to thank the party for their help, but warned them that the man was one of "Big Johan's men," and their actions may have just doomed the entire village. The party members of course boasted about how they will take care of Big Johan when he comes around, which seemed to anger the rest of the patrons. The party decided to eat dinner, wait long enough for Sarril to study spells (which were wiped from memory when he went unconscious earlier) and then to leave. As soon as they left the inn, they noticed that the streets were clear of people. Men who were previously gambling and drinking under a nearby tree were nowhere to be found. And then the party heard giant footsteps - different than others they had heard. And lots of them. They prepared for battle.

Coming down the street was a frost giant riding on the back of a mastodon - this must be Big Johan. Behind him were six ogres, and beside him was the man from the inn. The man pointed out the party

Big Johan

and said "Thems the ones, boss." Big Johan stepped off his mastodon and lumbered forward, carrying his gigantic axe menacingly. Dalron stepped up to meet him. As the giant was about to speak, Dalron threw four daggers, rolling at least one critical, and doing a total of 74 damage to the frost giant before he could act. Big Johan crashed to the ground. Dead.

Normally, this would be enough to scatter his followers, but ogres are stupid and the mastodon just went into a rage at the death of its master. The ogres were easy, but taking down the mastodon took a lot of work. This was a 12-HD animal that attacks 5 times per round. And Cadwin wanted it as a pet. Unfortunately, attempts at casting Animal Friendship didn't work, and the party had to take it down. But it wasn't completely dead. Sensing a faint heartbeat, Cadwin healed the beast to 1 hit point - unconscious, but alive. He then spent the night with the animal, the next day filling up his spell slots with the Animal Friendship spell and casting them over and over again until the animal failed its save. He then healed it completely, and now has a new pet. The rest of the party was offered free meals and rooms for as long as they would like to stay. The village was grateful, but concerned about the next giant that would come along. The next one might not be as willing to spare them as Big Johan was. The next day, the party used the mastodon to help move and get rid of the bodies, then stayed one more night before heading back out.

Attacked in the night!

Continuing south toward Gorna, the party could see that the devastation was getting worse. Along the road, they encountered a band of refugees headed north. They told the party that Gorna, which was a bit more than a days walk away, was completely under siege, and they had to make the long trek to Hochoch. Luapan used the Create Food & Water spell to supply the group before wishing them luck and parting ways. That evening, the party made camp with Cadwin sleeping on top of his mastodon and everyone else sleeping inside a Leomund's Hut.

Sleep was interrupted by a group of bugbears emerging from the woods attacking. Bugbears are not something that would usually bother the party, but following up right after were two Fire Giants. Sarril quickly turned the battle in the party's favor, however, by turning the first Fire Giant into a sea bass (for dinner, later). As soon as Dalron emerged from the hut, the battle was over - but just for fun, they decided to cast Dispel Magic on the fish, turning it back into a Fire Giant so that Dalron could kill it. It died easily. So much for their delicious dinner.

Soon, the party was interrupted again by a group of dwarves who claimed to be from the mountains nearby tracking these two fire giants. The dwarves were impressed that the party was able to handle them so easily and agreed to make camp with the party and exchange information. The dwarves were able to tell them that Gorna was, indeed, under siege at this moment by several dozen hill giants. Though they believe the city could withstand the attack for a while, the real devastation was happening outside of the walls. They also confirmed that while raiding parties were coming from the mountains all around the valley, the bulk of the hill giant forces were coming from somewhere in the Jotens, a mountain range south of Istivin in Sterich.

It was now morning of the 16th Day of Harvester, CY 580 and the party is planning their next steps. Head to Gorna and try to break the siege there? Or let the Duke handle that while they go south to investigate the source? Or forget about the giants all together head to Istivin? Or maybe some combination of these thing.

1st Day of Brewfest, CY 580 - The Party Divides

While the party was in Verbobonc, each of the player characters went about taking care of separate business. The next two days in the city were played online so that we could have a more productive session in person. A summary of events over these two days were:

Jarrus

• Jarrus accepted knighthood and lands granted by Lord Wilfrick. He specifically requested the lands surrounding the Temple of Elemental Evil and Nulb so that he could build a keep and convert the once evil place into a prosperous town
• Jarrus also met with the high priests at the Temple of Trithereon and managed to convince them to restore an ancient order of knighthood associated with the church called the Guardians. Jarrus was named First Guardian and committed to recruiting others to the cause. The church, in return, agreed to shift its focus to take a more active role in combating the growing threat of Iuz. Additionally, he gave the church enough gold to arrange the transportation of Janziduur, the High Priestess of Trithereon in Greyhawk (with whom Jarrus had developed an intimate relationship) and the refugees that were under Janziduur's care. The church agreed to send a replacement priest to take over Jaziduur's position in Greyhawk, and to send four clerics with him to his new lands to help get the keep established and spread the word of Trithereon.
•  Jarrus asked some dwarven builders to build his keep and that required doing a land survey so that a proposal could be put together. Jarrus was now responsible for escorting 4 dwarven surveyors and 6 assistants to his lands, in addition to the refugees that arrive from Greyhawk
• Jarrus also commissioned the building of a boat that would allow travel from Verbobonc, along the Velverdyva, and south down Imeryd's Run to Nulb (or what used to be Nulb)

Sarril

• Sarril turned over the names of all of the Temple of Elemental Evil agents that were operating in Verbobonc to the Viscount through Otis (a document previously uncovered in the temple had this information)



Prince Jimm

• Additionally, Sarril met with Prince Jimm, the gnomish ambassador and showed him the gnome friendship ring that was given to him by the gnome merchant. The prince invited him to dinner and Sarril was able to ask about why so many agents of Iuz and the Temple were asking about a gnome named Lysander. Prince Jimm was able to tell the story of Lysander - a gnomish adventurer who made bold claims about the discovery of mythical places and things. Some time ago, Lysander took an expedition party to some ruins or dungeon somewhere in Perrenland and when he returned, he wasn't the same - unable to speak or care for himself. The gnomes of the Kron Hills took him in, until agents of the temple started showing up looking for him. When no answers were given, gnomes started getting kidnapped and tortured. Prince Jimm took it upon himself to hide Lysander somewhere in Verbobonc where he could be cared for in secret. This is something that very few people know, and that was only shared with Sarril due to the trust instilled by the ring.

Pontus

Callista Thornheart - Seer

• Pontus went in search of a seer that he was told may be able to scry on his people and show him what is happening in his homeland. He was shown many things, one of which was a heavily tattooed man handing over what looked like a black shard to men in black robes. The man accepting the shard had tattoo of a fang with a teardrop under it on his forearm. The black robed man handed something back to the heavily tattooed man, but when Pontus tried to look closer at it, a black spider leaped toward him, and the water in the scrying pool was disturbed. The seer then said “There are powerful forces at play. Someone does not want you to see something. You should not have come here. Leave my home. NOW!" as thousands of black spiders began filling the room. Pontus ran from the hut, deeply disturbed by the experience.

Cadwin

• Cadwin went in search of druids of the Gnarley Forest, which led him to Oakvein (technically in the Welkwood) where he met the sylvan elf protectors of the great tree. They told him the story of the black shard that once poisoned the trees nearby and how the Enchantress Alyndra and her apprentice, Athan, once took the shard to Jaroo in Hommlet. Interested in learning more, Cadwin then flew toward Hommlet.
• On his way to Hommlet, an extremely large, ancient green dragon named Chausticlorinus intercepted Cadwin. The great dragon was prepared to consume Cadwin, who was trying to talk his way out of the situation. Eventually, the dragon realized that Cadwin could be useful in delivering a message, and so gave a message to Cadwin to give to the Lords Rufus and Burne. It turns out that the green dragon that the two supposedly slew to that earned them their titles and lands was never actually slain. Rufus and Burne had been paying off the dragon to keep it satiated, but recently have been missing payments, and the dragon was planning retribution if payments were not caught up soon.
• In Hommlet, Cadwin met with Jaroo and learned that most of the village had been rebuilt. He also asked about the black shards and was told about the large black bubble in Istivin that Delvin and Kella were sent to investigate, believing it to be related.

The Great Chaustichlorinus - ancient green dragon

Luapan

• Luapan left the group for a few days to visit with the Temple of Celestian in the nearby Kron Hills (his player has out doing fun summer things).

The party also met three new players characters - Othmar the magic user, apprentice of Juehlim who also has some sort of association with Drawmij, Dalron Sharpe, the ranger, and Dardac Kosk, the other ranger. Both rangers were part of Gareth's party back in the day, but had broken up after Gareth's disappearance. Having heard that the party rescued Gareth and adventured with him for a while (before he was eventually killed), they wanted to meet the group.

During this time, Jarrus also confronted Rufus and Burne about their scam related to the dragon. They insisted they had no choice, as the dragon proved far too powerful to be slain, and any attempts to do so now would only enrage it and it would take vengeance out on the people of Verbobonc. They did agree that it was wrong of them to keep this information from Lord Wilfrick and that they were now in over their heads. They agreed to come clean with the Viscount and accept whatever he decides. Cadwin spied on the meeting in the form of a bat. It was certainly uncomfortable for the two petty nobles, but in the end, Lord Wilfrick agreed to make the payments to the dragon while sending Rufus and Burne on a mission to discover a weakness so that it may eventually be slain.

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Sarril was not interested in helping Jarrus establish his keep and felt the mission to Istivin was too important and could no longer be delayed. Pontus, after having experienced the vision with the seer, agreed to go with Sarril, as did Luapan, for reasons provided by his temple. After speaking with Jaroo and learning about the black shards, Cadwin expressed interest in going with Sarril, as did one of the new rangers, Dalron Sharpe. Sarril turned in his favor with Lord Wilfrick to have the archmage Juehlim teleport Sarril, Cadwin, Pontus, Luapan and Dalron to Hochoch on the border between the Dutchy of Geoff and the Gran March, where they could take the Javan River south to Istivin.

This left Jarrus, Othmar and Dardac to escort the surveyors and clerics down to Nulb. So this brings us to the 1st Day of Brewfest, the day after the ship building was complete. Janziduur and the refugees had arrived a week earlier and were being sheltered at the Temple of Trithereon. One of the refugees turned out to be a ship captain, and was able to help oversee the completion of the boat and help coordinate the ordering of supplies.

Jaziduur (an NPC, but I left her in control of the player characters so they could have four PCs) decided to accompany Jarrus on his first trip, which Jarrus characterized as a scouting and surveying mission. That brought the total to three party members, Janziduur, the boat captain and crew, four clerics, four surveyors and six assistants. The trip was two days down the Velverdyva, then four days upriver on Imeryd's Run to Nulb.

Imeryd's Run goes through a nasty swamp called the Fens of Tor. One reason pirates were able to establish Nulb and keep it as a hideaway is because no one wants to navigate through that extremely dangerous area. During a place on the river where the water was low on a shelf, the boat got stuck.

Eight people had to get out and attach ropes and use a pulley system to dislodge the boat and pull it over the low shelf and back into the deep water. Of course this made for a perfect ambush opportunity. Lizardmen surrounded the boat, staying back just far enough to keep cover with the trees, and started throwing spears. While these lizardmen were no problem for the party members, they were able to pick off quite a few of the crew. Thanks to the clerics, most people were able to be brought back from the brink of death, but one of the surveyors died, which wasn't a great outcome.

Eventually, they got the boat to Nulb and saw that it was still mostly destroyed and uninhabited. Dardac was able to determine that lizardmen and other humanoids had been through the area and ransacked the remaining buildings that still stood. Jarrus decided to lead the group directly to the Temple of Elemental Evil - something that the surveyors and assistants started to protest, as they did not expect to actually be building there. Still, the area was mostly swamp, and the temple was built on solid ground, so it makes some sense. The state of the area around the temple was still how it has been since the temple was operating. Everything within a quarter mile is gray and dead-looking. The skies over the temple are permanently cloudy, and an ominous feeling seeps into everyone. The surveyors and crew were unable to further approach the place, so the party went on ahead to scout. They found that where the temple once stood, there was now only rubble. Still, the presence of evil was not gone.

Jarrus then led the entire group north, just outside the radius of the ominous feeling, and made camp in a field. During the night, something surrounded the camp, remaining just outside of the campfire light. Othmar, who was on watch at the time, did not see it, but Dardac, when he was woken up for his turn at watch, immediately asked why Othmar did not sound the alarm for the dozen or so bugbears that were obviously present. Dardac then shouted for everyone to wake up, starting the fight.

These were no normal bugbears. They moved slowly and made strange sounds. Othmar, removed the leather cover from the orb tip on his staff, bathing the area in continual light, and revealing the zombified nature of the bugbears closing in on the camp. Dardac started shooting his bow, but quickly realized these things were tougher in death than they ever were in life. Othmar struck a whole

line of them with a lightning bolt, injuring many, but killing none. They both quickly realized this was going to be a long fight and the problem was not whether or not they could kill these things, it was whether they could kill them fast enough. It was only three rounds total before Janziduur was able to wake up, get out of her tent and turn undead, but those three rounds were enough for the undead bugbears to slaughter several more people - another of the surveyors and some more assistants. Once turned, however, the party was able to chase them down and kill them all.

The next morning, the party decided to have Dardac track the zombie bugbears back to where they came from. The tracks led to a cave in a nearby hill. Leaving Janziduur behind to protect the remaining survey team, Jarrus, Othmar and Dardac proceeded into the cave. The cave had several passages, but the tracks led a clear path to one of the side tunnels that came up to a large crack in a wall. On the other side of the large crack was what looked like a carved hallway. The party made their way through and began to walk around. Jarrus was soon able to recognize that they were in the Temple of Elemental Evil.

Pushing through a door, the party entered a room called The Room of Eyes, which is where the previous party had once fought a hill giant, several ogres and some bugbears. There was no sign of those bodies, though not because they were reanimated, but because Pontus had unleashed the black pudding he was keeping in order that it consume the bodies and hide the evidence of their presence. It worked, and the bodies were gone, but unfortunately, the now enormous black pudding was still here, clinging to the ceiling. Dardac noticed it as they were going to leave the room. Othmar decided the best thing to do would be to hit it with a fireball, which he did. The fireball did some damage, but not enough, as the pudding dropped to the floor in front of the party, blocking their exit.

Jarrus charged forward and hit the pudding twice with his +5 defender sword, doing no damage, but dividing the pudding twice. Now there were three. Soon, Jarrus was covered in pudding, which was beginning to dissolve his magic sword and armor. Dardac threw some flaming oil on one of the puddings and then struck with a flaming arrow, lighting it on fire. Othmar tried a lightning bolt which had no affect, and he soon had a pudding on him, trapping him in the corner. Jarrus, in a futile attempt, punched the pudding for no damage as his armor and sword continued to dissolve. Dardac then doused Jarrus with flaming oil and lit him on fire. This seemed to stop the black stuff from dissolving his equipment, though Jarrus was still helpless to do any damage to the thing. Back in the corner, Othmar began to hurl magic missiles at the pudding that was now covering his body and which just dissolved his own staff (this killed the continual light, but the fire still provided light). The magic missiles did damage, but not enough to kill the pudding.

The party realized this was about to be a TPK (and, honestly, the DM thought it was about to be as well). Dardac decided to make a running leap for the door, smashing another bottle of flaming oil on the pudding on his way out. Jarrus, still on fire, ran after him, lighting some more of the pudding on fire as he did. Othmar felt his backpack straps dissolve away, and in a desperate attempt to save the valuable spellbooks inside, he reached in and threw the spellbooks in the air as the pudding lashed out at him again, then caught the spellbooks on their way back down as the rest of his backpack and its contents dissolved away. He then immediately cast Dimension Door and stepped through to join Dardac and Jarrus in the hallway.

It is now morning on the 7th Day of Brewfest (for this branch of the Badass Motherfuckers). Jarrus, Othmar and Dardac are now in a dark hallway inside the ruins of the ToEE. Next session will either be a continuation of this adventure, or picking up with Sarril and party at Hochoch.