Evidently, we healed up at the end of last game so the only issue was lack of spells.  Brisco said he was short, healing in particular, but since Dan missed the previous game, Clarissa had plenty of hers.  So, we convince Dave to continue on for a bit more.  We wanted to avoid the main library section since the alarm had been raised but luckily there were two stairs up yet to explore.  One went to somewhere we’d been before but one went to a room in a corner of level 2 we hadn’t gotten to.  In there was a strange looking torture machine.  It had a hunk of flesh in the middle and a gem at the top.  The gem looked like the soul storing gem we saw in the outhouse but since this one wasn’t glowing, we assumed it was empty.  Evidently the flesh was what was left after the procedure.  We spread out to search, examine, grab and guard.  The flesh split into two Flesh Worms and attacked.

We had them surrounded so we had flanking.  Did some damage.  However, when they went, it was the usual devastation.  TerStegan was hit, grabbed, sucked of blood which healed it and Drained 1.  (Drained gave minuses to Con stuff like Enfeeble did to STR.  Plus reduced your max hit points.)  Oakwood ran around the table to regain flanking and missed 3 times.  When he was attacked, it was the same as TerStegan except that first hit was a crit.  (on a 16 roll.  Ouch.)  When the first one fell, it exploded in a cloud of goo.  Those that saved took 15 and those that didn’t took 30.  Oakwood was knocked out, taking 80 hit points in one round.  We scrambled to save him.  Xeelie couldn’t reach him so used her Fast Healing focus spell.  Brisco sneaked in and did First Aid to stabilize him.  TerStegan attacked the last one but didn’t do enough.  Clarissa hesitated, fearing another explosion might take us out.  She was convinced some of us would survive and unloaded a full Force Barrage.  It died and exploded.  Luckily, Brian rolled lower on the damage and only Oakwood went out again.  He was saved again but there was a bunch of rules looking up to figure out the timing.  He was Wounded 3 in addition to Drained 1.

Obviously, we needed to heal up quick and then get home.  There was some debate as to where.  We didn’t want to open an unknown room nor did we want to stay in this gore dripping room.  So, we went down into the devil’s guard room.  Despite the alarm being raised on this level, we’d hoped the ghouls would avoid this room.  We got two or three 10 minute healing actions (Treat Wounds and Focus spells) without disturbance.  Brisco burned through the last of his spells.  We next debated how to get out fast.  That’s tough since this place is so big and we can only see some of the map at a time.  The fastest route was to the elevator but that meant going through the library so we didn’t do that.  Long story (not quite) short, we made it out without being attacked.  Oakwood managed to remember to avoid the Belcora Spirit room to Brian’s disappointment.  We went to our cabin the get a long rest.  The 3 with the Drained condition got undrained but they needed another night to get those hit points back.

We then spent a day around town.  Xeelie stayed at the cabin to transform the +1 war hammer into a +1 sickle for Brisco.  Brisco stayed with her, not liking town anyway.  The rest went into Otari to discover Oakwood’s dad had lost the election.  He went to his house and the family were understandably down.  He checked on his sister who was still ailing.  He made a Medicine roll and could find nothing physically wrong with her.  TerStegan went on a date with the new mayor’s daughter.  He tried a few Society rolls and it didn’t go well.  We had some laughs imagining what actually happened.  He also took the books he worked so hard to get to Morlibent.  He offered 2.5 gold for the lot.  We were disappointed.  TerStegan decided to just keep them.  Clarisa chose to avoid her mother since Brian said she had snuck out to come with us.  (That was so long ago.)  We sold some stuff including the Smoking Spear that Brisco doesn’t use anymore.  But it wasn’t enough to put anyone over the “magic armor threshold”.  We put in an order for the supplies Xeeile will need when we do have enough.  With that, we went back to the dungeon to search for more money.

We went back to that door we stopped at and found it innocently went to an area we had already been.  Next was probably the library but we desperately looked to some corner of level 3 that we could access instead.  We could not find anything however at Xeelie’s suggestion, we did re-examine level two.  Brian gave us 1 Survival roll to discover if there was any area of the map we’d missed.  Brisco made that and we returned to a long hallway that we had never actually walked down.  We found a secret room that lead into a big meeting room.  There were no monsters or haunts.  The only thing of interest was a nice (non-magical) chair at the head of the table.  Brisco thought there was “new magic” in the area and we wasted some time with that cursed Detect Magic spell.  He thought it might be up or down a level.  We went up, dropped off the chair at the cart, searched where we thought that might be and found nothing.  Back to the library.  We discussed and pick an entry point.  We found the door barricaded.  We could force our way in but it would be loud.  We decided to loop around to another door and it was barricaded as well.  TerStegan bashed through it and made a bunch of noise.  We stopped as the ghoul librarians began to attack.  We assume access to level 4 is in there somewhere. 

Brian didn’t want to get bogged down with searching for treasure on the pirate ship and simply stated there was none.  Or that it wouldn’t be ours, regardless.  Likewise, the surviving pirates were declared to know nothing of the spy in Otari which saved us with the moral dilemma of threatening to chop off toes during interrogation.  So, we moved on to the trip to the big city of Absolm.  He wanted to use the Earn Income rules to cover the 7 days of travel.  Unfortunately, the options were few as were the Lore skills possessed by the group so we had to get creative.  We spent some time trying to come up with uses of the skills we did have, knowing that if it wasn’t a Lore, it wasn’t as profitable.  We also realized that the jobs available going there (two ships) would be different than going back.  So, he split it into two rolls.

Xeelie chose to use her Craft skill to fix up the pirate ship so that it would fetch a better price.  Unfortunately, Brian rolled a 1.  And used a hero point and rolled a 2.  But a failure was better than a critical failure.  She earned coppers and was told her services as a carpenter on the return trip would not be needed.  TerStegan used his Intimidate skill to serve as a bosun on the pirate ship.  Ordering people around.  That was an officer level job so the pay was higher but so was the DC.  He got a critical success and earned gold.  To add a little spice, Brian said that his chair disappeared late into the voyage.  An Intimidation roll got two sailors to finger Julian.  He had tossed the chair off the ship.  Another Intimidation roll and Julian became his chair.  Oakwood used Athletics to work in the rigging.  That was a low-level job but Brian gave him the night shift (darkvision) for a one step up.  Brisco used his Nature to act as navigator.  That was also an officer job but since we really just needed to follow the other ship, it wasn’t worth much.  Both of them succeeded for silvers.  Evidently Clarissa was sea sick and didn’t earn anything.

In Absolm, the pirate ship and the remaining pirates were handed over to the authorities.  Our share was 50 gp, well above any treasure we might have found.  We also had a chance to do some shopping however no one had enough to get magic armor or a striking rune for Xeelie.  (Xeelie’s 50 went to Clarisa for past debts.)  Brisco went to the local Druid temple (park?) and made an offering.  Oakwood accompanied the merchant captain to the lumber buyer.  He wanted to determine what the current lumber demand was so that his father’s company could be shipping what was desired most.  Xeelie wanted to buy the recipe to create magic armor.  It was 8 gp and everyone attending kicked in 2.  Although, after discussing, having a player do it doesn’t save any money and having the recipe only speeds up the process by a day.  So, I’m not sure there was a point.  I guess Xeelie can do it on demand although the town NPCs play more often than Brian.  Xeelie also bought a couple of cantrip scrolls which a witch can feed to her familiar and add it to her cantrip options.  She’s still limited to two but she can choose them in the morning. 

We sailed back.  TerStegan and Brisco kept the same jobs and Brian let them use the same rolls to speed things up.  Oakwood rolled anew and got a critical success this time.  Xeelie took a job as a cook although they made her audition first after her carpentry failure.  That was still a Crafting roll.  (The super skill.)  Once in town, there was a feast in our honor.  Brisco chose not to attend, wanting to get away from the city.  The only thing we did in town was TerStegan.  He went to the town library/temple to see if they were interested in any particular books from the Gauntlight.  (He talked to the town wizard earlier.)  The priest’s first thought was that any books from there must be evil and therefore should be burned.  Not what TerStegan was fishing for.  Maybe they should be studied first in case there was something useful but it didn’t sound like he’d be getting much from them.

The next morning, we went back to the dungeon.  By Brian’s reckoning, there was one door on level 2 still not opened.  (Plus any secrets missed.)  That led to a big room with a long dead purple worm decaying on a sandy floor.  There was also a magically energy vortex going from ceiling to floor.  Some Lore rolls revealed that this was similar to the energy tube we saw in the library.  It somehow fed energy to the Gauntlight but again, it was beyond our level to mess with.  TerStegan carved up the body and was rewarded with a +1 war hammer.  It’ll be melted down for parts.  Or sold.  It’s the same difference.  And distributed, I hope.

In there, was another door into what turned out to be a dead end.  There were 6 alcoves, each with a sarcophagus.  Once Xeelie and Oakwood snuck far enough, two Shadow’s attacked.  Sadly, those two rolled at the bottom of the initiative and got in the way of the high man TerStegan.  It was tight quarters but Xeelie used her Tumble Through to good effect again.  They did significant damage, including negative, and also tugged on your shadow.  That gave Enfeeble 1.  (Minus 1 to STR stuff.)  Oakwood got critted and reached Enfeeble 3 at which point his shadow was removed and became a weaker shadow and attacked.  Xeelie used her healing focus spell on him to keep him up and Brisco cast a couple of heals.  But no one went out but now that we’re 5^th, the monsters are tougher still.  These resisted all damage for 5 which I’m betting we’ll be seeing more of.  Lore rolls revealed that it would take 1 hour to recover 1 level of Enfeeblement.  With 1 hour, TerStegan and Brisco were good but Oakwood was still at -2.  He voted for moving on, figuring it would take an hour of deciding and searching before the next fight anyway.  But he was out voted.

It was near midnight and we considered stopping for the night but continuing on won out.  We took the elevator room down to the 3^rd level.  TerStegan was eager to talk to the ghoul librarians about books.  After picking a lock, we ended up in a ghoul craftsman’s room.  At first, it looked like he was making books but upon closer examination, he was tattooing illustrations on skin pieces.  And he was very annoyed at being interrupted.  Xeelie was planning to pick up a tattooing feat and tried to engage him in conversation but he would have none of it.  TerStegan came in and stood by the door out and got his dose of insults.  When Oakwood moved to open the last door, that was enough.  The ghoul started to attack and we rolled initiative.

Oakwood managed to hit him and he critically missed his Stunning Fist save.  That lost him his first round.  We beat on him.  When he went, he tried to eat one of the skins on the wall to heal himself.  However, that was a manipulate action so TerStegan got an opportunity attack.  That was a crit so the action was interrupted.  He didn’t live long after that however the fight alerted some of the ghoul librarians.  They opened the door but TerStegan took them out, one a round, mostly by himself.  The last one closed the door and fled.  Xeelie and Brisco started gathering loot and TerStegan and Oakwood were not eager to charge off into a den of ghouls by themselves.  So, to Brian’s surprise, we ended the fight and went into exploration mode.  That’s probably the end of TerStegan’s plan to talk with them but we should probably be killing them anyway.  Xeelie got some tattoo books and tools.  Beyond stacks of Morlock bodies, the only other thing of interest was a silver hatchet which TerStegan took.  No one attacked us yet but we hadn’t done any healing yet either.  We had lost our momentum so we declared it “late” and quit for the night.  Next game in two weeks. 

We started with the usual quandary on what to do next.  Brian tried to start that discussion via email so he’d know what to prepare but didn’t get much response.  We talked about the “sneak on a boat and wait for the pirates to attack” plan.  The pros and cons and logistics and such.  We also talked about the “trace a message bird back to its source to find the spy in Otari” plan.  Watching the access points to see who leaves or enters town when a message is sent.  And the practicality of shooting one down.  However, we kept coming back to the point that the next ship out was a couple of days away.  Since we were already in the Dungeon, seeking that other’s adventuring party’s path through the mushroom eyed people, we could afford a day of dungeon progress before going back to town.  There was still some debate on the merits of going back early and we had trouble disengaging from planning the two town ideas.  Eventually, thankfully, Brian simply stated that he was prepared to pursue the dungeon and if we went back to town to pursue those plot threads, it would be an early night.  So, back to the dungeon.

At the end of the last game, Brian allowed us to find the Swamp Dragon’s treasure hoard without spending a bunch of time on it.  There was a new axe for TerStegan but he needed to merge its magic with his current axe and that would take time and materials.  There was a Wayfinder artifact that currently casts a light spell but was designed to hold infinity stones or some such that we have yet to find.  And a Wand of Force Barrage that the Arcane or Occult casters could use.  I think Xeelie was lobbying for it since Clarrisa already had the fireball wand.  Plus, some cash.  Next was some Treat Wounds.  Brisco wasn’t ready yet so Oakwood did his best with his Medicine Assurance.  We wanted to take the dragon body as we knew it was worth money from the last dragon we killed.  However, it was very big and Brian didn’t think we could carry it easily.  It at least warranted some discussion.  Uko pointed out that we didn’t need the whole thing.  Only the hide was valuable.  A good Survival roll from him and we had the hide which Oakwood could drag and the head which TerStegan could carry.

And then where to? We could press on, avoiding the mushroom eyed people if we could.  Or go down a level via the stairs.  Or try to backtrack.  We decided to go back to them and see what reward they might offer us for completing their request.  So went back to the throne room (and back into the enforced darkness).  The King was his usual arrogant unhelpful self.  He declared us “Minions of the Ghost Queen” as our reward and bid us to follow him.  Again, he led us through his territory, past closed doors and other subjects.  Answering no questions along the way.  We arrived at some sort of ruined workshop with 3 doors out.  One of which was barricaded with multiple doors.  At this point, he gave us two options.  Remove our armor and arms and walk willingly into captivity.  (Pass.  But that might be where the adventurers went?)  Or go down a level and fight the Cultist Ghouls we’ve fought before.  Evidently, they appeared (recently?) and push these guys up a level.  At this point, the parley started to break down.  There was some debate as to who said what first but Brisco decided to cast his Light spell before anything went down.

However, in Pathfinder there’s really no such thing as a surprise round.  We transitioned to combat mode and rolled initiative.  Brisco rolled uncharacteristically low so that Light spell didn’t go until late in the round.  Combat started.  We generally rolled low.  Xeelie, in particular.  When Brisco did cast his Light, these Morlock were all blinded.  That helped slow them down but they got a little better each round.  There was the casting King, two engineers with bows and axes and two guards.  Brisco got targeted a lot on that first round since he was the one making threatening motions and was quickly in bad shape.  TerStegan took most of the King’s spells, giving him sustained problems like persistent bleeding.  The quarters were tight but we got flanking where we could.  Speaking of which, we had all kinds of troubles with Foundry.  Things that had been working, like flanking, weren’t working anymore.  It certainly slowed us down trying to figure out what was working, what wasn’t and why they weren’t.  Oakwood did Battle Medicine on Brisco who eventually transformed into a combat Cat form since he was stuck in melee.  TerStegan was also healed by Xeeile’s witch focus spell.  It was dicey but no one went down.  And no other Morlocks came to help.  We then healed up.  Between focus spells and Treat Wounds, we managed to get everyone healed up and recharged in 30 minutes which was much better than the old 2 hours.  We decided to open the door to the right and found an old well room.  Nothing remarkable but we did find gear for 3 human sized adventures(?).  Did they surrender? It didn’t match the gear of the guys we were seeking.  We grabbed what we could.  We stopped before the next door and ended the night. 

Brian was willing to assume that we could cure the Ghoul disease, given enough downtime, so we didn’t have to wrestle with all those rules.  We gave Tangletop a funeral pyre send off.  After a couple of days, we all went into town to take care of business.  TerStegan talked to the rare book seller about learning the Underdark language.  (He intends to up his INT at 5^th so he’ll get a new language.)  Unfortunately, we didn’t know what language it was.  The book seller was going to do some research based on the few bits of information we did have.  Nobody else had any business but some side quest advancing things came up.  The girls noticed Xeelie’s mother putting a basket into the river and letting it drift through town towards the sea.  Xeelie could not resist and grabbed it.  The basket was filled with spicy food.  Enough to feed someone for a couple of days.  She put it back and followed it.  At the ruined tavern, a Kobald emerged with a long pole and fished it out.  Xeelie was told her mom had “a lot” of baskets.  They left it at that.  The boys went to talk to the head guard.  They were making progress on the bandit problem and asked them to help scout and/or fight once they found the camp.  The weaker members of the group could come too.  Evidently, he valued brawn over brains.

However, the big topic, which took up most of the night, was the pirate problem.  The girls noticed a small white bird flying over the town.  It didn’t look native and seemed to be flying awfully straight for a bird.  Xeelie tried to take action but Brian by the time they realized it was odd, it had passed.  That was the end of that clue.  In parallel, the boys were told of the pirate problem during their discussions with the head guard.  Oakwood had overheard a discussion about this at his father’s house several games back.  Ships loaded with lumber were being attacked at sea.  The valuable lumber was taken, the rest dumped and the merchant ships and crew spared.  All 3 lumber companies were being hit.  Anyway recently, townsfolk have been noticing small birds flying across Otari.  They came from “north” and were headed “to sea” and always at dusk.  One of them was shot down.  A lucky shot at that distance.  It turns out, the bird was made of paper (medium level magic) and it carried a note.  No one Longsaddle had access to could read it but the shipment that went out that day, was not attacked.  He was trying to keep it quiet.  The players made some suggestions about shooting more down or tracing them backwards or forward but that was “too hard”.  Oakwood borrowed the note and took it to Xeelie.  You know, the smart one.  It was in a formal older Goblin script.  It was a description of the shipment.  Ship, date and time, cargo, crew, guards.  There’s a spy in town. 

I think the intent of the module is to give us bits of information on these side quests so that we could make slow progress while we attended to the main quest of the Gauntlight ruins.  Brian even tried to get us back on the rails by saying that the next ship out wouldn’t be for a couple of days so you might as well go back to the Gauntlight.  However, given a mystery to solve, we could not stop.  In our defense, this threatens the livelihood of the whole town so it’s a pretty serious threat.  Not “end of the world” but pretty high.  More than a missing son or a rare book.  However, once we started down this path, we could not get back out.  Some of our players are pretty tenacious on this sort of thing.  The first thoughts were to trace the birds back to the source or get on one of the ships and fight off the pirates.  As for the second, Xeelie was all for it but she’s the only one with a long-range bow.  The rest of us would have to wait until the sailors got us very close before we could do anything.  And assuming we succeeded, we would have saved one ship.  Can we assume there are more than one pirate ship? We can certainly assume the captured pirates would give us nothing.  The better plan is to find the brains on land and shutdown the whole operation.  The boat plan was rejected but might still be the way to go.  At least it’s actionable.

But two days later, Brian sent out more information on the pirates, making that a more viable plan.  Firstly, the “reasonable” rules on swimming and drowning and fighting in water.  And then this list, that 3^rd bullet, in particular.

• • The merchant ships have all been quickly chased down by the Pirates.
  • Any merchant that surrenders have been left with their ships and lives intact, only goods have been taken / destroyed.
  • It’s the same pirate each time, Captain Bellafide of the Dread Design.
  • The pirates don’t always descend on the merchant ships at the same point, even if on the same route.
  • Merchants hiring additional fighting crews significantly cuts into the profits.
  • Merchants hiring escort vessels makes the endeavor non-profitable.

As for tracing the birds, that turned into a morass.  We returned the note and talked to the head guard for more details.  Brisco showed up around here.  Turns out the bird was shot down by a farmer on the east side of town.  The straight over town turned into somewhere to the north and somewhere at sea.  That’s a much bigger area to cover.  And we’d have to project backwards which is much harder than following it forward.  We at least needed to know when the next shipment was so that we’d know when to look.  Oakwood was hesitant to ask around since their ships were being attacked.  We might get accused.  He talked to his father.  The next ship to go was the #2 company but he wasn’t sure when.  His ship just left so it’ll be a week for him.  It’s fluid because it’s a matter of when a ship is full.  He did caution Oakwood about being careful and forbade him from going to sea.  We talked to TerStegan’s adopted dad at his suggestion.  He works at the mill that all 3 companies use.  He might know.  He said her ship would be ready in two days.     

DG tried to get back on the “two day, go back to the dungeon” path but the rest could not give it up.  DS, who was fresh and ready to go since he missed the first 1.5 hours of investigation, was eager to use his +0 CHR skills.  We went to the #2 owner.  She was also the one who had those accountants nosing around her rental properties.  (Another side quest.)  One of those properties was Clarisa’s home.  Somehow, they got an audience, despite the late hour.  The pirate stuff got deferred and Brisco and Xeeile dove into the accountant’s quest.  She was told she was guilty of some sort of fraud and depending on the judge, she could be in big trouble.  They were “suggesting” she pay a hefty fine, however that fine alone might ruin her.  The players asked if she had any “assets” that they might be after.  Only the lumber company.  So, they convinced themselves that the two quests were linked.  I.e. financially ruining one company is linked to ruining all companies.  They promised to investigate it more but other than strong arming the accountants, I’m not sure they had any real ideas.  Go to law school? Back on the pirates, Xeelie suggested she cancel her next shipment at the last second in hopes of throwing them off.  She reluctantly agreed but the accountants are pressuring her to send out her best lumber ASAP in hopes of getting the needed cash.  Her ship might be the ship we fight on if we go that way. 

We had a bunch of discussions about the note.  (Brian added some more info via email:  When the origami bird was brought down, it struggled to continue its flight.  After the arrow was removed, it nearly got away.  The farmer doused the paper with water and the struggles reduced significantly.  By the time the farmer brought it to the guards, the origami bird had ceased functioning and was just a damp parchment.)  The paper was unremarkable but the penmanship was excellent.  It was more likely a learned man who was using Goblin rather than a Goblin.  A Wizard? The equipment also had to be good to write so much information on such a small piece of paper.  The book seller in town best fit that description but that’s hardly proof.  It was also noted that the notes were sent from the north but the information had to come from Otari.  So, someone was going out there.  Brisco asserted that he’d know about everyone that goes into town since he hangs out in the forest.  Brian didn’t buy that but Brisco proposed that we could watch the roads to see who leaves or returns when the notes get set.  A tough task given a lack of walls.  We also discussed who the spy could be in town.  Who knew all that info for all 3 companies.  That was a short list but following all of them wouldn’t be easy either.  And finding evidence? There was even talk of going to the thieves’ guild, opening that side quest box, and seeing if that would help us.  And probably more ideas that I can’t recall that were even further afield. 

Anyhow, we were spinning in circles and half the group had given up listening or caring.  Xeelie tried to reach some sort of actionable conclusion but nobody had any brain power left.  Paralysis of choices, none of them good.  So as midnight approached, we decided to defer the pirate quest for a couple of days and go to the Gauntlight for some minimal thinking, hacking and slashing.  Brian pulled up his summary email and said we had 9 choices on where to restart the dungeon.  Doh! TerStegan voted for Oakwood’s idea of following the other adventuring party down the hole to the “mushroom eyed” people.  Good enough.  Once there, we could see their campsite and their excavation in the pit room by Boss Skag’s throne room.  We went down the rope and landed in a big dark room with many doors.  Through the fog of war, we could see it connected to areas we had already been to.  There were no signs of the adventures but before we could start making tracking rolls, a half dozen Lurkers appeared.  They would not answer our questions but would take us to their king.  He does the talking.  We decided to agree.  We started moving down a corridor and were “handed off” to two bigger dudes.  At this point, it came to light that these guys would not permit any light.  There were some tense moments but eventually Brisco turned off Saps’ light spell.  We figured he and Clarisa didn’t need to see to do the upcoming parley and if there was trouble, he could just turn it back on.

The conversation with the king was basically a repeat of the one with Boss Skrag above.  He was the absolute ruler of all his people.  And the ruler of his domain which consisted of one level of a ruin fortress.  We asked him about the adventurers but he would give no straight answers.  We did get him to admit there was some sort of disturbance two days ago but he didn’t concern himself about such things.  Oakwood found it surprising he didn’t know if his people were killed or not.  Basically, if we wanted anything from him, we had to kill the Swamp Dragon to the north.  Since the adventurers did not go this way, they must have killed some puds and went another way.  But since we had to kill that dragon eventually, we decided to just go for it.  (Tiredness and boredom usually make for poor decisions.)  We came to an underwater lake access with several ruined boats.  We could see big footprints in the mud but we had no wish to fight a dragon in the water.  So, we went up.  The first door was locked.  Xeelie critically failed her open locks roll so TerStegan busted it down.  Oakwood was watching the lake behind us.  In there was a big teleportation circle, similar to the small one we found in the closet upstairs.  This one at least had the rare metal in the inlays although it would take quite some time to dig it out.  The next door gave us two more doors.  One to stairs up and one back to the mushroom eyed folks, we figured.

However, at this point, the River Drake emerged.  There is no surprise round in PE2 so we went straight to initiative.  And since it was a big monster, its was 32.  DS used his Hero card, giving Oakwood 5 points of damage resistance for a round since he was the man to hold the line.  It used its breath weapon, a glob of acid that hit Oakwood and the two casters (those in the back) for significant damage.  Oakwood and Clarisa also missed the save and lost 10 feet of movement plus 1d6 persistent acid damage.  It also did a reach tail swipe at Oakwood.  TerStegan did his Sudden Charge and got in front of Oakwood and did his damage.  Oakwood missed twice and then Tumbled Through to get on the other side to give flanking.  (He should have done that in a different order.)  Clarisa and Xeelie cast cantrips and Brisco healed Oakwood.  The dragon slayer was also able to frighten it.  However, after a round or two, it turned to flee back to its water.  TerStegan hit but Oakwood missed his opportunity attack, even with his hero point.  And it got away.  However, Brian decided he didn’t want to deal with the hunting of a wounded drake and gave Oakwood another parting shot.  This time he hit and finished it off.  We signed off with visions of dragon treasure hoards.  

We started in the small elevator room that they ended in last time.  There was a door to the north and south.  We went south.  In a small hallway, we could smell something bad coming.  The next room had soil on one side, the rotted remains of some sort of organic material.  Xeelie was hesitant to enter so Oakwood stepped up and prodded the soil with his reach Bo Staff.  A fungus creature emerged and let loose a gas cloud.  Unfortunately, it extended to where Oakwood was but fortunately, he saved.  We rolled initiative and moved up as we could.  It was tight quarters.  The two of them weren’t much of a threat and only TerStegan was hit for little damage.  Xeelie did her Detect Magic and as usual, she detected something new but we had no idea from where.  We did the dance of moving around to no avail.  There just wasn’t any room.  TerStegan even dug through the dirt.  Eventually it occurred to someone that the elevator might be magical.  A Crafting roll said that it didn’t sound mechanical when we rode it so it must be magical.  We moved on.

The next room had a big pile of flesh parts.  The source of the smell.  Oakwood thought it looked like another Gibbering Mouther which turned out to be true.  Thankfully, it was dead.  There were also two, what turned out to be, ghouls in there, praying to it.  Brisco went first and fired a cantrip.  On its turn, it ate a chunk of flesh and healed itself.  TerStegan was hit on that first round, infected with Ghoul Fever and paralyzed.  He stayed that way throughout the fight.  The save DC was stiff although it did lower by one each round.  He could do nothing.  Xeelie did her Tumble Through thing and Oakwood moved up to give an alternate target to TerStegan.  And then one of them leapt across the front lines and landed between the two casters in the back.  One of them got paralyzed too.  2 of 5 unable to move and it looked dicey.  Oakwood managed to Trip one which gave Xeelie two sneak attack hits, one of which was a crit.  Oakwood also crit and then finished it off when it tried to stand up.  3 against 1 swung the odds back in our favor and it was dropped, trying to get to the healing flesh. 

We made a bunch of rolls.  The disease increases in severity once a day and Treat Disease took 8 hours of care so we couldn’t really do anything about the afflicted TerStegan and Brisco at this time.  Oakwood did Treat Wounds on TerStegan while Brisco and Xeelie searched.  With Xeelie’s new witch healing focus spell, TerStegan was good to go.  We found nothing although we did avoid messing with the mound of flesh.  We decided to press on after talking Brisco into taking 10 minutes to Treat himself.  The next room was back to the library we had seen before.  We saw a ghostly figure that looked a lot like the portrait of the head craftsman we saw in the workshop.  He took a book from a ghoul and then faded into the floor.  In the center of the room was a column of blue light with bits of flesh flowing through it.  The light looked a lot like the Gauntlight Tower light however we didn’t think we could stop it here.  We had to go down and stop it at the source.  The librarians seemed ghoul-like but not as menacing.  One asked what she could help us find.  Xeelie spoke up from the back and asked for a book on Haunts.  We were told we needed to go to the scriptorium for that.

So, we were led through the library, past shelves of books, ghoul librarians and lots of closed doors.  The scriptorium had many desks for scribes to transcribe books.  And a skeleton on the floor.  Soon enough, a Haunt appeared and told us to get to work.  She was the head librarian and assumed we were new scribes.  Xeelie agreed that we were and got to work.  Oakwood tried to explain that we weren’t scribes but was mostly ignored.  Once we got to work, the Haunt touched a secret button which would open a secret door (to her office?) However, since she was a ghost, she just walked through it.  One of our books had a letter put in it.  Another letter from the Dr whose footsteps we seemed to be following.  What I can remember, it said that as long as we worked, the Haunt wasn’t a problem.  That the temple to the north was “interesting” but the priests were “touchy”.  And something about a grand spiral staircase.  It also guided us to a sack with some gems.  Oakwood searched the skeleton and found a small portrait of the chief craftsman.  He was a Cavern Elf although the Haunt of him looked a bit different.  He also found a tiny iron key but no one saw anything to use it on in this room.  Lastly, he removed the Chain Shirt.  At this point, we decided to head home and deal with the disease.

Back in the library, one of the ghouls invited us to meet the high priest in the temple.  Clarisa made a Recall Knowledge on the carvings around the door.  The goddess of death.  That told us they likely wanted to sacrifice us.  We said, no thank you and moved on.  There was some debate as to the quickest way back to the stairs up but Xeelie got that right.  From there, it was up and out.  We had no trouble until we met a 4-person adventuring party around a fire by the entrance.  Evidently it was almost midnight in the above ground world.  They were eager to trade information but since we knew way more than them, we didn’t give them much of anything.  It helped that we were ”just kids” so they assumed we didn’t know anything.  Evidently, the mayor had invited them to come over here and they were pleasantly surprised that someone had already cleared out the first level.  You’re welcome.  TerStegan suggested they start with the Gauntlight tower, to face the blood Delcora.  Was that evil? Brisco mentioned our run in with undead.  They had heard about the graveyard attack from the mayor, and again it didn’t occur to them that we could be the heroes that fought them off.  They said they had found a way down a level to the mushroom men and were tackling that in the morning.  At least they’re going a different way.  If they get killed, we’d get lots of good stuff.  Is that evil? But they look more formidable than the town guards.     

Once we got TerStegan to stop talking about the Rose Guard Lore, we made it back to the club house.  Brian assumed we could deal with the disease.  And also assumed we could identify magic items.  The bag had 4 one-use weapon talismans.  We decided to sell those.  And some medium strength anti poison potions that got distributed.  The doctor’s letter had warned us about poison users coming.  The miscellaneous wealth got distributed as well but it wasn’t much.  The big ticket was the +1 chain shirt.  TerStegan was eager to convert it into something he could use.  But it was a 5^th level item so, while we could use it(?), we couldn’t Craft with it.  Oakwood asked if anyone could use it in the meantime.  The Rouge could but since she lacked the STR, it would give her -1 on DEX skills.  Plus, it had a DEX cap of +3 so she’d be losing out on some of it.  The Sorcerer spent a feat to be able to use light armor so she could use it.  She also lacked the STR but didn’t care so much about DEX skills.  But she didn’t fight much.  We assumed the Druid could not use it since it was metal but further research says PE2 removed that WotC limitation.  We gave it to Clarisa for now, however when she turns 5^th, she’ll likely bump her DEX to +4 at which point, maybe it will be converted.  She went from the least wealthy to the most wealth and now Oakwood is on the bottom. 

We started with the fact that Oakwood and Xeelie were already wounded from the game previous.  It was successfully argued that when the rest of the group healed up last game, the non-existing two would have been healed as well.  This allowed us to get going.  As usual, we had a myriad of options but the main two were to go down the mold infested stairway or into the room with the animating bones.  It was decided to stay on this level rather than go down although with all the twists and turns, no one was sure what “level” we were even at.  However, a discussion was had on the mold problem regardless.  TerStegan argued that since it absorbed heat, attacking it with cold would be good and heat would be bad.  Several made Survival rolls and Xeelie was “fairly certain” she knew what to do.  I think that was GM speak for “hazard avoided.”  However, Paul and BTO demanded details (that Brian didn’t have) and guarantees (that Brian wouldn’t give).  They were still thinking in terms of avoiding an encounter.  And they could be right.  But again, we decided to table that discussion until our mold talking Druid showed up and go the other way.  To the Giant Skeleton.

The door was reopened and the bones started to pull together again.  Initiative was rolled but until it was rebuilt by whatever background evil was present, there wasn’t really anything to do.  Xeelie moved to the other side of the small room and opened the exit to give us more options.  Clarisa hit the skull with a Telekinetic Object but at this point, it was only a thing and not a monster so it did nothing.  TerStegan ran in and tried to stand on the large glaive but didn’t roll high enough on his Athletics check.  Oakwood readied an attack.  When it did form, giant-sized, he missed with both flurry attacks.  TerStegan got into his Stance after two tries but we quickly found that it was too mindless to be affected by fear.  (As are most undead.)  It did a lot of damage with its sweeping glaive.  We did a lot of missing.  TerStegan did the lion’s share of damage and after a few rounds, it was over.  Oakwood did some Treat Wounds for 2d8 while the others searched.  Xeelie’s Detect Magic detected magic but again, that spell is not specific about the location.  So, we had to play 20 questions as she moved about the dungeon, trying to zero in on what new thing was magical.  Eventually, Brian gave him an Investigation roll and said that it seemed to be background magic and nothing specific.  She determined the glaive had no value and that moving the bones would not be necessary.  Moving along.

The next “room” was a large corridor with more doors than TerStegan could count.  After some debate, we decided to defer the door that was glowing greenish and open the double doors to the north since they were closest.  That was another hallway with little dioramas in alcoves along the way.  Each depicted a great city being destroyed by some catastrophe.  Closer examination revealed that each had a tiny Gauntlight in the scene.  Xeelie was quickly convinced it was Absolom, the biggest city on the island, but they weren’t really detailed enough to confirm that.  She and Brisco tried to triangulate the position of the Gauntlight with their knowledge of Absolom using their various skills.  But were told, repeatedly, that it was not to scale, only representative, move along.  At the end were another set of double doors.  It was a large dining room or meeting room filled with webs.  In there was a Web Lurker.  It was commanding us in a language none of us understood.  A good Society roll from Oakwood thought it was some sort of Underdark language.  TerStegan planned to research that language in his downtime.  We faced the usual murder-hobo dilemma.  We knew it was evil but couldn’t attack it until it did something evil.  TerStegan decided to Demoralize it with a growl.  That succeeded and it cowered in a corner.

However, that worked.  Its two Dream Spiders and two Giant Spiders attacked from the shadows.  They moved up, attacked with immobilizing webs and poison stings and then moved back out of range.  Oakwood and TerStegan, at the bottom of the initiative again, just stood there and took it.  Although they both got 1 reaction attack at least.  They were both immobilized and poisoned but thankfully, the poison was Stupefy (i.e. mental) so it didn’t bother them much.  The rest fired into the room and Xeelie tried to do her Recall Knowledge to get her extra 1d6.  Oakwood managed to rip free and choose to step into the room to lessen their hit and run tactics.  It was a fight and we took some damage.  About the time we had them on the ropes, both the frontline guys got caught in web traps.  But the spiders were finished off soon afterwards and they were assumed cut down.

What followed was over an hour of downtime.  Oakwood Treated the barely wounded while Brisco Treated the badly wounded.  Meanwhile Xeelie and the rest searched.  They found a web pouch full of shiny bits and bobbles.  However, in there was a necklace with 3 Fireballs (1 use) that went to Clarisa.  Some glowing sling bullets that would continue to glow if they hit their target.  Again, one use.  Brisco took those since he didn’t have any enhanced sight.  Lastly was an opal that when placed on clothing, it would bump up a Deception roll one level.  We were going to sell it, not thinking of a reason we’d ever use such a thing, but the eventual Bard ended up taking it.  One Treat Wounds was not enough to get TerStegan back to battle ready so we waited an hour for that clock to reset.  During that time, everyone was topped off and we were good to go.

The glowing room turned out to be a wash room with glowing green slime within.  That slime moved and spelled out the following message, one letter at a time.  “I am Otari.  Save me, below.”  Or some such.  And then proceeded to move across the floor.  We followed it and it led us back to the mold infested stairway down at which point, it disappeared.  This reopened the mold debate, with our Druid.  TerStegan asked if Brisco could use his Ray of Frost cantrip to clear away the mold.  (Sneak peek at the answer: It was no.  He could not.)  This sparked a bunch of questions from Dave.  Why do you think that’ll work? Why do we have to go this way? Why are we here at all? Why should we attack innocent mold? The bottom line was that Plant Druid Brisco would not attack a plant without cause.  By sticking to his character concept at the expense of the group and all of our time, he earned a hero point.  But again, we came back to the same conclusion.  We’d like to finish this level before going down.  So, we went back to the washroom.

That’s a problem with these modules.  They are full of details but they are also full of “useless fluff” that don’t advance the main plot.  But we, as players, don’t know what room is pointless and what room has an important clue, a valuable item, a secret door, etc.  So, we have to grind through each room, one at a time.  What’s in here? What’s it for? Is it important? Is it dangerous? Is it trapped? Everyone wants to use their skills.  Each room takes time.  I guess each is its own encounter to be overcome.  So, the next room had a small demon who, we think, was conjured to do the cleaning down here.  He “seemed” evil but wasn’t doing anything evil.  He talked but had nothing useful to say.  The fact that it had been a hundred years since anyone was down here didn’t seem to faze him.  Eventually, we just left him behind.  The next room had two large constructs and seemed to be in storage.  Is this area a storage warehouse or living quarters for minions or what? I went to bed at this point, unable to face another pointless room.  I assume nothing happened.  Hopefully they grinded through some more and dare I hope, stopped at something significant? Not much learned, not much gained, no character advancement, no closer to any campaign goal.  Until next time… 

Oakwood had Covid.  However the rest of us soldered on. 

Briscoe healed enough to be conscious.  Briscoe and Terstegan moved back to the previous room while Clarissa and Xeeli explored the room where the Brownie mysteriously got slaughtered.  Used detect magic wack a mole.  Xeeli placed the brownie corpse into her magic sleeve.  She said it was to provide an honorable burial later… but the rest of us had some doubts. 

Clarissa Read Aura and Arcana on the gem and found it was the constructs power source. Then Briscoe, Xeeli and Clarissa went outside to explore the docks.  Briscoe went first and the pier collapsed exposing a Flckerwisp that attacked us.  It was immune to magic so the GM interpreted this to mean it was immune to stones thrown by magic and magic weapons.  It beat on Briscoe but on the second round it retreated.  Terstehgan ran up after the fight was done, stumbling through the uneven surface and broken glass of the room.

After treating our wounds we headed downstairs. We found a chamber for making constructs where Worbough's (the bird construct) body was floating in a large glass decanter.  We also found a journal.   Apparently this goblins master was a construct master and the goblin volunteered to have his soul place in a construct.  We found a doll construct with no limbs and were about to place the soul (from the gem) into the doll to question it when Briscoe found a secret door (look, a butterfly!) naturally we dropped our plans to rush to the secret door.  It led down stairs to a four way intersection.  A door to the east, a corridor to the west and stair going back up to the south.

Xeeli snuck ahead but didn't tell anyone that he was scouting ahead so we had a discussion on whether we knew if he was scouting.  We decided to wait since it seemed she was scouting.  In one direction of the corridor he found a library complete with librarians wearing blue robes actively placing books on the shelves.  We were not sure if they were constructs it being late we decided to look down the other end of the corridor to see the lay of the land without starting a combat.

The room at the other end was filled with thick mist, we were unable to determine any details inside.  Going up the stairs we found a "T" intersection.  South was what seemed to be an exit to the swamp, a muddy/moldy beach but it got so cold Briscoe and Terseghn took cold damage.  Now were didn't think it lead outside and the mold grew as it absorbed the boy's body heat.  We backed out.  Once again the girls escaped harm.

The room to the north led to a room full of bones that started to pull together into a giant skeleton about three meters with a bull's head with a large sword.  Rather than immediately closing the door Xeeli tried to determine what this was first.  We determined it’s a skeleton with a bull's head.

We returned home with our grim cargo of 6 guardsmen bodies in tow.  Brian hadn’t had a chance to come up with any sort of reaction from the town so there wasn’t much of one.  He rolled randomly to see how Derric Longsaddle’s father would react and rolled very low.  However, he forgot to declare whether low was good or bad.  Having declared, he rolled again and got very middle so there wasn’t much.  The town gave them a Viking funeral and we prepared to return to the Gauntlight.  We were assumed to have healed up after a couple of days.  DG suggested we buy a human drawn cart and load it with construction items for use at the dungeon.  So, we could repair the drawbridge, fix wooden shields without searching for timber scraps and sift through the debris for loot.  That was met with enthusiasm although it took surprising long to agree on a price and a cart.  That sort of cart wasn’t on the list in the books and we ended up on a sled with wheels and spent 1 silver ring worth 5 gp for the package.  We attempted to get to there several times but got derailed by Darkvision discussions, encumbrance discussions, Dave’s detailed discussion on the spells he had access to that wouldn’t summon something to pull the cart, etc.  Eventually, we got there.

We repaired the drawbridge and stashed the raft under it.  We parked the cart in the entry tower so that it was at least out of sight.  Brian exposed the map so that we could remember the areas we have explored.  Other than going down a level or searching for more scraps, the only part we hadn’t done was a small outer building on a small island to the northwest.  Through the castle, the only way there was past the pool of blood so we elected to avoid that and go around the castle to the east.  (Retroactive play.  Paul said he wanted to ask Xeelie’s mother and the town Cleric about that pool of blood.  After being interrupted by Xeelie and Brisco wanting to make knowledge rolls, Brian said they said it sounded like a Haunt. That usually required it to be put to rest.  But to put such a powerful Haunt to rest would take a significant event.  I.e. the end of the adventure.)  There was also discussion on where that alleged Swamp Dragon lived.  Over by the boat house and not here.  The doors were unlocked but jammed or blocked.  TerStegan made a critical Athletics check and managed to open them without destroying them.

The first room appeared to be a study with books tossed about on the floor.  We heard a disembodied voice claiming to be a Wisp.  It offered information if we’d retrieve “the shiny” from the next room.  That required a lot of discussion.  We then saw a light fly through the closed door.  Xeelie made an Arcana roll and said that was a Dancing Light spell.  We searched and gathered and talked.  This was the lab of Belcora’s apprentice.  The voice urged immediate action but we were growing suspicious.  It seemed like the books were tossed “recently”.  We searched a door to the south and found some construction supplies.  The next was a mold filled room with stairs down.  Brian said it looked like no one had been in there for 100s of years.  Brisco used his Talk with Plants ability to talk to the mold and determined that no one had been in there for 100s of years.  TerStegan suggested that perhaps there was an invisible something in the book room so a more thorough search was made.  He found a tiny Brownie hidden under a table.  We talked and bargained and threatened and failed to coerce and kept coming back to the same spot.  Open the last door and face the monster.  Eventually, Oakwood opened the door into the hallway but it didn’t work.  The rest of the group couldn’t leave the Brownie.  He’s hiding something.  Of course he is.  He wants us to fight a monster for him.  Of course he is.  Where did he come from? It’s as if he just exists so that we can encounter him.  Of course he is.

Eventually, we opened that last door with TerStegan begrudgingly leaving the Brownie behind.  A tiny bird like construct was in a lab that made lenses for an immense lighthouse.  It asked what we were up to, didn’t like Oakwood’s answer and charged in a rage.  What followed was a night of extremely poor rolling on our part.  It had a beak attack that did persistent bleed damage and since this was Pathfinder, it could do up to 3 attacks a round of decreasing bonuses.  All of its stats (initiative, AC, attack bonuses, damage reduction, etc.) were scaled up to be a medium challenge.  Oakwood got battered.  TerStegan missed a lot.  Classira cast cantrips that usually missed and since they took 2 actions, she only got 1 shot a round.  Xeelie tried to get flanking for her sneak attack bonus and then couldn’t decide what to do when she couldn’t.  Brisco couldn’t decide what to do every round.  The floor was uneven and required an easy Acrobatics check or fall prone.  Luckily, it seemed everyone had that skill except for TerStegan who spent most of the fight crawling on the floor.  After a round or two, the Brownie danced past us to grab the spyglass on the other side.  We envisioned him stealing it away as we fought.  Xeeile tried a Lightning Arc from her sword and targeted the spy glass as the second target in hope of dissuading him from taking it.  For that, the Brownie “attacked” her with a confusion effect that caused her to attack someone at random.  At that, TerStegn charge crawled over to it, crit and killed it with one mighty blow. 

Towards the end, 3 of us were taking persistent bleed damage.  Brisco got critted and then got attacked by Xeelie who thankfully missed twice.  With a couple of us down half, a couple untouched, it finally fell.  Brisco started reading the First Aid rules for alleviating persistent bleed damage and the chronicler went to bed as it was after 1 AM.  I assume we spent time healing and searching and identifying the spyglass and then stopped.  Or stopped with that to do first thing next time.  We’re still doing 1 room a night.  At this rate, it’ll take years.  But maybe next time we can at least go down a level?         

We were down to 3 players and back to Foundry.  It took a bit to get re-familiar with it and there had been updates so that didn’t help.  Plus, Brian had to rebalance the likely encounters for the fewer characters.  We were about to approach the altar in the cursed chapel yet again when Paul noticed Ter Stegan was down significant hit points.  This surprised us since we didn’t do much last time and thought we started that game by healing up.  Brian had gone back to FGU to transfer our current hit points but it didn’t seem right.  After much discussion, he double checked and indeed he had shorted him 20.  We were finally good to go.  As we approached, a blue light appeared in the chests of the 3 skeletons.  As it floated up, it pulled the bodies into a standing position and they attacked.  Brisco went first and cast an Arm Shield spell on Oakwood that gave him a virtual shield without needing a free hand.  But he had to use an action to raise it and a reaction to block with it.  (It saved him 4 hit points and one miss for their efforts.)  When one of them went, it hit Ter Stegan twice, once being a crit, and he was half dead.  Start to worry.  Damage is big in this game.

It was a fairly typical fight.  Ter Stegan did most of the damage although it took him 3 rounds to get into his Dread Marshal Stance.  Only to discover that these were immune to fear.  Oakwood did a lot of missing including missing on a Trip in round one.  He gave up on that tactic and just got flanking instead.  Brisco cast a spell per round but that took a lot of time.  We had to figure out how the spell worked, how it worked in Foundry and then apply it all.  It was 20 minutes per spell.  Same with Battlefield Medicine on Ter Stegan.  It had just been too long since we played PE2 and used Foundry.  As for the monsters, it was claws and bites.  They also had a 30-foot cone blue glow power than did damage on a save and more damage and fear on a failure.  But fear is only -1 to everything (i.e. no fleeing) and goes away the next round.  The only surprise was when the first one went down.  The blue glow floated over to the thief body and animated that.  Luckily, the original skeletons, once dropped, were too broken to reuse.  BTO showed up late but didn’t enter the fight.  One blue light tried to float past us and into the rest of the keep but Ter Stegan cut it down with a Reactive Strike.  Brisco was knocked out at the end but they were defeated soon after.

Brisco did his Risky Surgery on himself.  Xeelie searched with knowledges and Ter Stegan and Oakwood searched with perception.  Oakwood found a secret compartment in the altar which contained a scroll and a wand.  Xeelie eventually identified them as a scroll of restoration-like that went to Brisco and a wand of Harm which will go to the missing Clarissa.  (Cast Harm, once a day.)  If Brisco spent another hour on himself, he could double the hit points gained and since he rolled a 20, he did that.  Oakwood Treated Ter Stegan and those two were “topped off” with Xeelie’s free Elixirs of Life.  Xeeli rolled a great Recall Knowledge but to BTO’s disappointment, there was nothing else to be learned.  Evil Undead god chapel, etc.  She also tried to repair Brisco’s wooden shield but Brian ruled that she needed some quality lumber beyond the repair kit she had in her sleeves.  The only wood in the area usable was the door to the unexplored south.  (Because it amused Brian.)

At this point we had the usual debate.  To continue or go home for a long rest.  Hit point wise, we were good but Brisco was out of spells.  And to keep playing or call it a night.  DG pointed out that the next room was the last room on this floor in this main part of the keep.  So sleepy Paul had Ter Stegan just open the door.  I guess we’re continuing.  In there was a huge scorpion and a large one.  More combat.  They had reach, enfeebling poison, a grab and the first appearance of a monstrous Reactive Strike.  Xeelie could not make a Recall Knowledge to get her sneak attack dice at range.  After two rounds, she pulled a short sword and attacked.  Brisco used his last spell (maybe he meant it this time) and gave them Fungus rot.  Ter Stegan hit a lot and even Oakwood hit.  We took some damage and Oakwood got poisoned but we won.  Brian accelerated the healing (including the Fly Pox), the transportation on the bodies and the successful return home.  We stopped there, with ramifications of the death of the town guards to come.  No experience with mentioning.  If Brian plans to get us back in sync with the module expectations and get us down a couple levels in the keep before leveling up again, at two rooms a night, it’ll be a while.   

The immediate issue was that Forge would not work.  Or more precisely, that we could not access Forge on Brian’s computer.  Something about granting enough access through Brian’s firewall.  He tried a bunch of stuff and eventually had to give up.  So, we temporarily switched back to Fantasy Grounds.  That took some time but thankfully most of us were 4^th level on it so there wasn’t too much to do.  But it took a bunch of time.  We finally started and tried to deal with the Fly Pox problem.  However, it was pointed out that Treat Disease took at least 8 hours of care so we couldn’t do anything about that.  Next was healing Ter Stegan.  Dave was having trouble remembering how to use his Risky Surgery to Treat Wounds with Aid from Oakwood.  In his defense, switching from D&D to Pathfinder to Owl Bear Rodeo to Forge to FGU was taking its toll.  Eventually, he was healed.  During that time, crafty Xeeli built some travois to drag the bodies back to town.  Two bodies per and 6 bodies.  We placed them by the entrance in case we had to make a hasty exit.  And with that, we started exploring some more.

The first order of business was tracking down the Flies.  We figured they’d return to the Fly room, as labeled on Boss Skrug’s map.  We had some discussions on who was doing which Exploration Mode tasks.  Those roles were assigned and then reassigned.  It was a small but tall round chamber that used to be a tower.  In the middle was a pile of rotting carcasses.  Fly food, we figure.  No Giant Flies and nowhere where they might perch or stay.  We were expecting access from on high but the ceiling looked intact.  Ter Stegan was eager to burn the bodies so once everyone got their chance to search and recall and detect, we used some torches and a pot of oil to burn them.  Once that was done, Brian revealed that there was a trap door on the ceiling.  A bit late as the room filled with smoke.  But it would be a near impossible climb to get up there and it didn’t seem logical that flies could be using a trap door?  We moved on. 

Brian declared that it was now night time.  One of the things we wanted to do was to check out the Gauntlight Tower in the night since that’s when the attack had occurred.  We lined up and Ter Stegan bravely opened the door.  He saw that the pool of blood had formed into a vague humanoid shape.  He immediately closed the door but turn-based games don’t work that way.  His Roseguard Lore told him it was shaped like Belacor (which we figured) but smaller than he’d expect.  We postulated that the pool was short of blood.  Or perhaps she was a gnome all along.  He and Clarissa were in the line of sight.  They took 8 points of damage as a glob of blood was extracted and flew into the pool. They also missed a stiff Fort save and were Dazzled (partial blindness) for a round.  (Perhaps this pool has been growing over the decades on fools that happened by in the night? And is now big enough to light the tower?)  Once Brian had his say, Ter Stegan could finally close the door.  Expect that it wasn’t his turn.  Initiative.  Brisco went first as usual.  He moved up, closed the door and pulled Ter Stegan back a square or two.  (He ran out of actions.)  He did notice a secret door in the corner he cowered in.  Basically, we fled and it didn’t open the door.  With a +15 initiative, that big Fort save, the fact that our weapons would likely be diminished against a “pool of blood” and any damage to us would possible “feed it”, it seemed like one of those things we should flee from.

We regrouped at the entrance.  We decided to avoid the tower and proceed on to the ghost infested chapel.  But first we checked out that secret door.  It led to a 5x5 room with no other exits.  An examination of the floor said that it was once a teleportation circle but that it had been disabled and any precious metals used in the seal had been removed.  We went back through the secret door into the chapel where we had turned back due to lack of numbers almost two months ago.  After arguing about traps, we piled in.  The same scene as before.  Oakwood grabbed some stuff from the dead adventurer including some potions.  We eyed the skeletons on the altar and looked for ghosts in the eerily cold.  However, when Clarissa came in, Brian revealed some back history.  She realized she was a blood relative of Belacor.  That her Blessed feat was from the god of death that Belacor evidently worshiped.  Brian offered Dan the chance to change the Ghost Knowledge to God of Death Knowledge.  And replaced the Guidance cantrip he got from that feat with the more “deathly” Vitality Lash.  Basically, a ranged undead damage spell. 

We stopped there before Shimota could declare that we must kill her now.  Experience was minimal but so was the progress.  No game in two weeks because Brian will be out of town.  So, in four weeks we’ll fight ghosts and/or skeletons and whatever goes “buzz buzz” in the room south of this one.                 

BTO needed to get his character into Foundry.  Paul was going to attempt to attend from Mexico via his phone so Brian had to transfer TerStegan as best as he could.  That gobbled up some time but at least they got a head start.  We agreed to go take out the Mudmifts rather than mess with the ghosts in the chapel.  So, we backed away from the secret door.  We successfully lobbied that it had been an hour of conversation with Boss Scrag and exploration so Brisco did another Treat Wound on Oakwood.  And now that Xeeli existed again, she topped him off with an Elixir of Life from her Alchemist dedication feat.  Once again, we struggled to get Foundry to work right.  There were some discussions about exploration activities options which is a feature that Pathfinder seemed to think was important.  I’m not sure it had any impact.  We prepared for the fight outside the door and so did Brian.  He tried to balance the encounter for the full 5 character set.  (So much for our plan to better our chances by waiting for more players.)  He had some problems with that but eventually Xeeli opened the door and the party started.

She fired some arrows into the room.  And then a spider attacked her from above and crit.  This was our first combat with the new program and it was a struggle.  There seemed be stuff that happened automatically but only if you entered stuff manually first.  Figuring out how to attack, use skills, target foes and friends.  We rolled the damage but Brian had to apply it.  And others.  We piled in.  Another problem was that the spiders Brian placed were all the same spider so when one took damage, they all did.  Brian was tired of dicking with it and just let it be so.  That made the fight much easier as when that first spider dropped, they all did.  The boss, which I think we assumed was a spell caster, just seemed to have a blow gun.  It only took a couple of rounds to clean them out.  The Boss successfully pleaded for his life.

That was good and bad.  He provided crude maps of the first and second floors.  There were several foes still to be discovered.  Next to the old stables, they were breeding giant flies on which they’d ride on their assault on Otari.  There were some other bugs before the chapel that we avoided with the secret door.  And something in the water.  And a layout out of the next level, the most important of which was the access point under the dock.  There were discussions on whether that would be under water, since the dock was over water, but maybe not.  But the big news was that the lair of the swamp dragon was at that point.  Several intimidation rolls were made on him and he mostly spilled his guts.  But he didn’t know everything.  He knew nothing of the lighthouse other than to avoid it.  He had no treasure.  The bag of gems he offered us last time was merely pebbles, shells and worse.  The bad news was that we had to figure out what to do with him.  We decided to head back to Otari and hand him over to the “authorities”.  Not sure how that will work out since we had no evidence and a semi confession forced under duress.  But TerStegan was eager to pick up his new weapon.

Back in Otari, it would take two days for the weapons to be complete.  In that downtime, each character had a chance to do some stuff.  The amount and success of those activities varied greatly.  TerStegan wanted to talk to Xeeli’s mom.  (And the priest but she was too busy.)  She had one piece of advice that we hadn’t already thought of.  Since the lighthouse attack happened at night, maybe we’d have a better idea what was going on if we went there at night.  Xeeli spent most of her time getting started on her sleeves of holding.  Brisco spent most of his time at the clubhouse, fixing up the grounds in particular.  Oakwood attempted to get a start on the Mayor Election side quest but he had no social skills and couldn’t roll above an 8 so got nowhere.  Dan was distracted with home issues and Clarisa didn’t do anything that I can recall.  We also talked to Honest Jack.  He had definitely been out there which wasn’t too damning however he seemed very well versed in the Mudfits plans.  Brisco found this suspicious and Oakwood thought it at least warranted a mention to us on our way there or to the Otari authorities.  There was also some investigation on the boat.  The bird statuette we found was an osprey and there was a bar in town for which that was their symbol.  And they happen to specialize in pasties.  Pirates? We weren’t even sure if that boat could get to the ocean from the swamp. 

Next time, we’ll have to decide (again) to continue on the main quest or get diverted by side quests.  We earned no treasure and any experience was negligible.  Hopefully combat goes smoother next time and we can make more progress.  Maybe finish off the ground floor.  Brian said that our level progress will slow while he tried to get us back in sync with the level expectations of the module.  

Only Paul and DG responded to the email about what we should do.  Dan called in first and agreed with DG so it was off to the Gauntlight.  But first TerStegan and Oakwood put in ½ deposits on striking weapons with the merchant in town.  We headed to our cabin but had an encounter along the way.  A small (gnome?) well dressed traveling merchant and his giantess (as in giant) companion, wagon, protector.  Jack and Jody.  They were on their way to Otari to do some business at the Founder’s Festival.  Clarisa told them they were a bit late.  He went into his spiel.  He had lots of odd stuff and we weren’t sure if they were real magic items or not.  E.g.  A trap finding chicken and a billowing cloak.  He did say that he was a re-seller and not a crafter.  He did mention selling a dragon egg to a bunch of ignorant Kobalds but it sounded like he thought it wasn’t a real egg.  Eventually, Oakwood bought a lesser healing potion, figuring it was worth a few gold to know if this guy had legitimate goods.  They continued on to Otari and we continued north.  We checked in briefly at the cabin and picked up the raft from out back.  Oakwood thought we might need it, depending on how swampy the path to the Gauntlight might be.  It turns out, it was not needed.  The path led right to the front door.  But the day is young.

One of our first questions was whether the light was on.  Not.  We proceeded in the front doors.  Unless stated otherwise, every room was in ruins, covered in moss, mold and cobwebs, debris strewn about, walls and stairs crumbling, etc.  We entered a gatehouse which was solid enough to put the rafters in shadows.  We could hear scampering up there and talking in a language none of us understood.  Oakwood tied the Everburning torch to the end of his staff and put it up there.  He got a glimpse of a small creature that looked like a cross of a Potter house elf and goblin.  TerStegan advocated for killing them but the reach and the darkness would make that tough.  Brisco was against “murder hoboing” and Oakwood voted for live and let live as well.  Spoiler alert: The correct answer was “murder hoboing”.  We moved on and TerStegan got hit in the head with a small brown pellet of some sort.  Best not to ask.  Across a small drawbridge, we entered a large hall with lots of doors.

The first door led to what used to be a stable.  There was a big hole which granted access to the outside.  And a giant toad which had had its bottom half bitten off.  Some examination said that whatever did this had acid in its bite.  Similar but bigger to that dragon Clarisa had slain? There seemed to be a hole up a level but no good means to get up there so we moved on.  The next room used to be a dinning room however the roof had collapsed.  Eventually TerStegan stepped in and a swarm of Kobald ghosts appeared.  They attacked with a fear power but he saved.  They were quickly critted away.  But were they gone or just dissipated? Brisco was eager to search for treasure, figuring/hoping that the ghosts might have scared away all the adventurers that had come through here.  Rather than continue to argue with him, Oakwood just went in.  And the ghost reappeared.  He charged them but before he could attack, they cast fear and confusion and he didn’t save.  Fear is okay but confusion is rough.  Even though the ghosts were the only things in the room and TerStegan was the only other thing in sight, Brian made his roll randomly against every party member and the ghosts.  (Good thing he didn’t include everyone in Otari too.)  So, Oakwood didn’t attack.  He whirled around, charged the opposite direction, and attacked TerStegan.  Clarisa couldn’t get a shot and made a Ghost Lore roll instead.  Since they were cowardly Kobalds, they might be frightened off.  She then rolled Intimidate and they disappeared.  It was assumed Oakwood was restrained long enough to come to his senses.  No treasure, by the way, although it would take picks and shovels to do a proper search through the rubble. 

There were more doors but the next door to the north was the tower and that was our goal.  That was a circular room with a stairway winding up 100 feet.  It showed no signs of wear.  In the middle of the floor was a pool of blood that looked fresh.  There was a slight ripple which got everyone fixated.  We spent 30 minutes messing with that.  TerStegan wanted to remove the blood but we couldn’t find anything to contain it or wash it away.  Not a bucket or bowl in the whole place.  Or a mop.  Out the next door was a boat house and we thought maybe we’d find something out there.  It had more useless debris however what we did find was the remains of a recent campfire and the footprint of a Giant.  Jack and Jody, we assumed.  Were they just camping here (brave?) or up to something.  We did find a boat in reasonable condition.  But too small for a giant.  In it we found some pastries in a sack.  They were fresh but more like cookies so they could be days old.  Not 500 years though.  No one could make a Recall Society roll so that was a dead end.  And there was a figurine of a bird.  Brisco made enough of a roll to recall seeing something like this in town but no one could remember.  So that was a dead end as well.  We talked about doing a detect magic but there was so much background magic, Brian told us not to waste our time.  Meanwhile, Clarisa used Prestidigitation to clean up the blood but found that it replenished itself.  Finally, TerStegan made a Roseguard Lore roll and recalled that Belacourt was supposedly slain at the bottom of the tower.  This is her blood and it’s been there 500 years so it’s not likely we’d be able to do anything about it.  Moving on.

We headed up the stairs which were solid enough but creaked with age.  At the top, through a trapdoor was the Gauntlight.  We did it.  We’re here.  And..??  We spent another hour trying to figure something/anything out.  The room description was debated.  Basically, the outer “wall” was an iron cage with a “glass like” force field enclosing it.  In the center of the room was an iron cage with a man-sized glass chamber within.  It glowed with blue light but evidently it wasn’t bright enough to be seen from the swamp in the daytime.  There was nothing in there and no door or anything.  We found no levers or dials or controls of any kind.  Nothing else in the room at all.  No conduits or pipes.  It was self-contained.  We discussed theories and possible actions.  Lore rolls were attempted to no avail.  I mean, why was there a lighthouse in the middle of a swamp instead of on a coast.  What was its purpose? Obviously, it wasn’t currently beaming monsters into the Otari graveyard so someone must have been here and done something last night.  We should search for them or evidence of them.  Or it was on autopilot and had recharged after 500 years and fired off.  So, nothing to find.  TerStegan wanted to smash the glass with his axe but that seemed risky.  Oakwood suggested building a wall of stone around it using the debris below but would that even work? Eventually we decided to search more of the ruins.  We’d only seen a third and maybe there were more clues to be found. 

Swift Oakwood was leading and when he got to the door between the tower and the hall, he found 4 of those impish fey and 2 giant magots waiting for us.  Again, they talked in a language we didn’t understand and attacked.  Unfortunately, 5 of them rolled initiatives above anyone on our side.  Oakwood took some hits but at least he made a Will save.  The casters fired over him and when the magots went down, they exploded in a cloud of sickening goo.  He failed that save.  He took an action and saved against it, hit once and backed up a step so that TerStegan could get in there.  He killed one or two.  In their next round, they ran.  TerStegan got one free hack but he only had one reaction.  Two went to a door on the right and one went to a door below.  Oakwood couldn’t reach the one so he went for the two.  Both doors went into another room with 8 more in there.  They were weak but their attack was high.  Oakwood was nickeled and pennied to death.  TerStegan faired better but he was critting and hitting and dropping them at a much faster rate.  The casters supported Oakwood as his hit point bled away.  The last couple tried to flee again.  Oakwood chased his although if DG had realized how few hit points he had left, he might have acted differently.  He caught him, hit once but missed on attack 2 and didn’t kill him.  And was dropped on its next round.  However, that action meant it didn’t get through the next door before TerStegan finished it off.  Clarisa stabilized Oakwood with a cantrip and we stopped there.

Our heroes raced up the path to the library on their way to the graveyard.  We were short Xeelie and Clarisa.  We met an acolyte coming the other way.  He said the library was under attack but they were holding their own there.  However, Corgaide was trapped in a shed in the graveyard and needed saving.  When we got up there, we found 12 skeletons and 12 zombies climbing out of their graves.  But they were spread over a large area.  The skeletons were resistant to piercing and had a decent AC but not many hit points.  The zombies only got 2 actions and had a low AC but more hit points.  Brisco supercharged TerStegan’s axe who then started cleaving them.  Oakwood managed to crit miss twice and miss on his first round.  From there, TerStegan kicked ass, destroying them 2 a round.  Oakwood ran across the map with his 35’ move and engaged the ones around the shed before the door gave way.  Brisco supported TerStegan and Corgaide managed a couple shots through the keyhole.  They were very weak opponents but with 2-3 attacks a round, some landed.  And did low damage but it added up.  We managed to defeat the ones in the immediate area in 4-5 rounds but they bled off some hit points, especially from TerStegan.  At the end, Wrin Sivinxi came up from the library to help us.

<By the way, Brian is planning to implement critical hit and critical fumble tables.  But only on a nat 20 or nat 1.  We had a lot of nat 1s and he rolled up the first couple to see what it would be like.  Seemed harsh.  Crits too.  More afflictions, I think.>

And then there was another green flash and a spiney green spider thing appeared in the middle.  Brisco did Risky Battlefield Medicine on TerStegan and TerStegan charged it.  It was another extremely challenging boss with high scores all around.  2d8+8 attacks, 23 AC, high saves, poison, AOE, etc.  On its first round, it hit TerStegan for 15 plus poison and then another 15 and just like that, our best fighter was on the ropes.  I think Brisco healed him again.  Meanwhile, Oakwood raced across the graveyard and at least got close enough to give TerStegan flanking.  With that +2, he did manage to crit it for a bunch of damage.  And save against the poison before taking another dose of damage.  However, the next round it hit him twice and dropped him and hit Oakwood as well.  49 points in one round with 3 attacks that all hit.  Oakwood did his flurry but didn’t have flanking anymore.  He was unsure what to do with his last two actions.  Its AC was much too high for a -10 attack and reflex save too high for a trip.  Wrin asked that if he could move TerStegan a bit, she could get all of us in a heightened AOC heal.  Brian let him move and then drag TerStegan around him to get him 10 feet closer with those two actions.  She did that heal which also damaged the undead that were still wandering in from the north.  Basically, it was three healers trying to keep TerStegan up with his Runic Weapon and one Monk trying to give him flanking.  Plus everyone pitching in on damage where they could.  And then suddenly, he dropped it.       

In order to speed things along, Brian said that the remaining undead stopped when the spider stopped.  Now that we had an action to spare, Brisco’s Recall Knowledge said it was an abomination.  We were concerned that more may be on their way but Brian said that the tower had stopped glowing.  We searched around a bit to see if the grave it arrived at had any significance but it didn’t.  Basically, it was a big mess with bodies scrambled all over the place.  We were glad it wasn't our job to clean this up.  Same with the library.  Clarisa’s mom, Lux, was overseeing the cleanup of that.  No treasure, of course.  We talked about sleeping up there since it was late evening by this point or maybe charging off to the Lighthouse but Wrin’s portents said that the immediate danger had passed.  We should head home, get a good night’s sleep, and start fresh in the morning.  We finished the night with some side quest/backstory progressions back at our homes.  To go with the bandits with guns, missing person, werewolf on the loose and, oh yeah, saving the whole world plotlines we already had.  

When Brisco arrived home, he found an Aarakocra and a Dwarf taking measurements outside of Clarisa and Lux’s home.  They were well dressed and communicating in some sort of sign language.  He was hesitant to get involved since he was alone and out of spells.  In case there was trouble.  And then he decided to cause trouble.  He pretty much assumed/accused them of being up to no good.  Refused to provide any useful information, etc.   They were aware that they rented from Lady Someoneorother and asked if he knew if they were up to date on their rent.  Eventually they left.  Brisco then went back to the library to talk to Lux.  She had no ideas.  As far as she knew, she was in good standing with her landlord and was even doing side work for her to get a break on her rent.  Maybe the Lady was in financial trouble.  If they were casing the place, they were at the wrong place because she had nothing of value.  The next morning, when we all hooked up again, Oakwood suggested it might have something to do with the school the Lady was building.  Their house was near the site but not that near.  Nothing as fearsome as well-dressed accountants.   

Back at Oakwood’s place, he overheard discussion about pirates attacking lumber barges.  (No talk of blue beams and the dead rising?)  They were just taking any cash and dumping the wood.  Their efficiency also indicated that they were getting insider help.  It’s bad for business.  In the middle of the night, he heard a noise.  Wood scraping on wood.  He got up to investigate and found his sister at the breakfast table.  She was still having headaches and not sleeping.  She’d been hearing voices but couldn’t make out what they were saying.  When Oakwood mentioned the scraping sound, she thought it was her moving a chair.  She was dressed for sleep so it was unlikely she had snuck in a window or anything.  DS was convinced it was thieves guild sneaking into the house via secret trapdoors.  But it’s a big house with lots of comings and goings so maybe it was nothing.  Oakwood suggested she put pen and paper near her bed and try to write down what they were saying while it was fresh in her mind.

TerStegan found his father pondering a piece of wood with strange runes carved into it.  He found them on the loading plume of the Menedes family.  He was planning to ask one of the magically trained folks in town about it.  They discussed.  Maybe it was an act of sabotage or protest from his friend, Brisco? TerStegan didn’t think that was likely, given how busy we had been.  And then they bonded over tales of the night’s fight.  The next morning, they took it to Wrin who said it was a warming rune but generally used to warm a room, not burn down a building.  It would take many of them to start a fire plus more spells as such.  But that’s a lot of work.  There are easier ways to start a fire.  Oakwood pointed out that it was a high stress structure so maybe a little damage might cause more damage than she thought.  There was then talk about who had a motive to ruin a lumber business, town economy, etc.  She was asked who in town could create it. It was a short list of the arcane casters.  Not primal magic.

We stopped there.  Brian needed to add up the experience earned to see if we made 4^th.  It’ll be close.  His expectation was that we’d be heading to the Lighthouse next time.  Hopefully we’ll find pirates, bandits, and arcane saboteurs there because suddenly we’ve got a full list.  I.e. there’s no sense in saving the town if the town destroys itself while we’re gone.

Brian pulled rank on us and mandated (strongly encouraged?) that we stay at the cabin and finish the job rather than go back to town.  Some of us were wounded and Clarisa was the worst off but we pressed ahead to the storeroom.  Since Xeeli was fresh, she took the lead.  After looking for traps she opened the door.  And we were attacked by 6 rats.  They weren’t too tough although Xeeli was hit a couple of times, and missed a save.  And Clarisa was crit again but not knocked out.  But they were dispatched.  Xeeli successful did a Treat Disease, assuming the failed save was disease.  And then some Treat Wounds for her and Clarisa since Brisco was late.  And then we headed up to the last two bedrooms.  The first one had no monsters for a change.  Just some beds and cabinets with bedding.  The last room had an eerie blue glow and a colder temperature.  The Ghost Lore and Occult Lorists were consulted but we didn’t learn much.  When we entered, we meet Finnegan the ghost. 

We had a long conversation with him.  The upshot was that he inherited his adventurous grandmother’s magic sword but was killed, unheroically, in the nearby swamp.  We tried to figure out what he needed to move on since we didn’t have a bedroom to spare.  Eventually we figured out that it was the failure to use the sword that was holding him back.  Xeelie promised Finnegan to use his sword in her adventures.  Once he was convinced, he faded away.  During that, Oakwood retrieved that vial in the bathtub from last time.  We thought it was a heating rod that explained why the water was steaming.  It turns out, it was the Ooze that was steaming and the vial was just a vial of acid.  Xeelie took that since she is our alchemist.  We then had to finish searching the house.  With the Detect Magic rules, that could take hours but thankfully, Brian moved that along.  We found the “Hand of the Mage” which would allow anyone to cast the Mage Hand cantrip.  The negative was that it was the mummified hand of an elf so Xeelie didn’t want it.  Brisco ended up with it.  In the study, in the globe liquor cabinet, were some healing supplies.  4 healing potions, 3 antitoxins, and a quality healers kit that gave a +1 on rolls.  The kit went to Brisco and the potions were distributed.  Finnigan’s sword was a +1 short sword (again?) that cast a modest Arc Lightning once a day.  Xeelie took that, with plans of transferring her current sword’s +1 into TerStegan’s great axe.

Brian said that there were sufficient supplies to repair the cabin at the cabin.  With Xeeli leading and the rest assisting, it could be done in 2 days.  I think he blew the first roll, used a hero point and crit on the second.  A fine job.  We added a crow’s nest on the roof and fixed up the barn for Brisco.  During that, TerStegan took the croc meat to town and sold it to Tammily.  She was working on a stand to sell fish at the Festival.  Now she’ll sell croc on a stick.  Xeeli finally got TerStegan his +1 axe.  On to the Festival.  It started with a play about the town founders.  We got a bit of a history lesson on the town back story.  Basically, it was a bunch of names (of the founders) being played by a bunch of names (the current town residents) recounting the origins.  TerStegan managed to get a minor role of an orc henchman of the villain and did alright.  Next were some announcements.  A couple of missing persons that were also in the Message of the Day.  Now that we’re 3^rd, our scope of concern is getting bigger, evidently.  Someone was going to repair the tavern ruins and turn it into a school.  And then the political speeches for mayor.  The current mayor, Oakwood’s father, had had the job for 20 years.  His was the “stay the course” message.  Next was the town nut.  But he rambled and soon wandered off.  Lastly was the mayor’s chief rival.  He made some good points that seemed to be resonating.  The election is in two weeks.  Lastly, we were presented as the heroes of the day for our Kobald thwarting and dragon slaying.  That was muddied by Brisco’s anti-lumber pro-plants protest signs.

Lastly were the games.  Everyone got two tickets but that was a bit more complicated since some were group events and some were “kid” events.  First up was the tree felling contest.  Basically, who could do 40 hit points in the fewest swings.  However, no one could break the 4-round barrier, so it became the most damage in four swings.  TerStegan and Oakwood competed.  Oakwood picked up marital weapons when he multi classed into fighter so he was using the same battle axe.  TerStegan’s had a +1 to hit from the magic axe but the AC was low.  (No crits which hurt him.)  DG successfully argued that his Forestry Lore should give him an advantage when felling trees.  +1 damage.  Both rolled great although TerStegan had to use a hero point to turn a crit miss into a hit.  But Oakwood won by virtue of those 4 points.  Next was the axe throwing contest.  Clarisa and Xeelie competed in that one and since Dan was running Brian’s character, he was rolling against himself.  Xeliee managed second place.  Next was a balance beam joust that used Acrobatics and some basic attacks.  Our most Acrobatic is Xeelie but she was saving her ticket for archery.  The joust had no prizes but there was wagering.  TerStegan used his ticket to get her in and then bet 5 gp on her.  She did the same.  Her opponent was Rajani from our rival gang.  Neither rolled well and it took a hero point from the GM to get past the first round.  But she fell and Xeelie won.  She did a backflip at the end which she nailed.

Next was the caber toss.  That was a straight up Athletics roll, best of 3 tries.  Oakwood and his recent expert Athletics skill entered and won.  His last toss, 19+11=30 broke the record previously held by TerStegan’s godfather.  Next was archery which Xeelie and Brisco competed in.  Although Brisco had to use a crossbow.  They both did well but neither placed.  Next was something called wild cow milking.  That was a 3-man team but only took one ticket.  TerStegan used Intimidating Glare followed by Oakwood’s Athletics finished by Brisco’s Nature.  All totaled, they got first place.  Then the sled pull.  That was a team of 6 and another Athletics total.  Clarisa had a ticket left and we recruited Zug the cook as our 6^th.  Oakwood used Follow the Expert to get Clarisa a +2, getting her to +1 but she rolled poorly.  The rest rolled well and we were in contention.  Xeeli went last, and rolled great, and we burst into 1^st place.  There was a turtle racing event for the kids that Brisco bet on.  He was hoping his expert Nature skill would give him an edge.  It did not.  TerStegan, with his Performance and Clarisa, and her Ghost Lore, crashed the kid story time.  Xeelie also entered the pie eating contest, showing up Rajani again and getting second place to TerStegan’s 1^st place.  There was also a potion tasting booth that Xeelie and TerStegan sign up for.  Xeelie’s mind was expanded for a short time and TerStegan drank mud.    

The last thing was tarot card reading by Xeelie’s mother and town’s odd gypsy-like figure.  The cards are below.  Basically, play time is over and now we’ve got to save the world.  We ended with an eerie blue beam shooting from the far-off Gauntlight Ruins (the mysterious lighthouse in the middle of Fogfen swamp that adventurers are supposed to have picked clean after the Redguard defeated Belcorra) and stabbing into the nearby Otari Graveyard.  The PCs are heading towards the Dawnflower Library and thence up to the graveyard (maybe an 1/8th of a mile jog and then a switchback trail up the cliff).        

GM Summary

ast Session...
Cabin in the Woods Our heroes finished cleaning out and repairing the Cabin in the Woods

An intelligent winged snake will remain in the cellar with his pile of pillows. He (she?) has laid claim to the two barrells of X)0( liquor in the cellar, but seems willing to share. Other than the pile of pillows (which appear to have been scavenged from all throughout the house), 011ie makes no claim to either the space or anything else in the cellar. Blue Finley was finally met in an upstairs bedroom. After agreeing to take his grandma's sword on adventures: Sparkblade he was put to rest.

Otari Founders Day Festival

The group returned to town and dominated the competition at the Otair Founders Day Festival. The results of some of the more memorable competitions are as follows: NOTE: By memorable, I mean the ones that players responed to my request and gave me reminders of who won.

Tree Felling 1st Oakwood 2nd TerStehgen

Balance jousting Xeeli (winner) vs. Amicia Rajani (loser)

Axe Throwing 2nd Xeeli

Caber Toss 1st Oakwood (also established a new festival record)

Wild Cow Milking 2nd Brisco, TerStehgen and Oakwood

Sledge Pull 1st Brisco, Clarisa, Oakwood, TerStehgen, Xeeli and Xug

NOTE 1: The crowd only recalls Xeeli's final leg of the race (25), not the legs where TerStehgen (27) and Oakwood (27) did the setup.

NOTE 2: Certainly Clarisa (3), Xug (7) and Brisco (13) do not get mentioned (like now) when the race was only won by the tiniest of margins (3).

Pie Eating Contest

1st TerStehgen

Being the only contestant not to vomit, some consider TerStehgen the sole winner, however, in reverse order of succumbing to the urge to spew chunks were:

2nd Xeeli

3rd Amicia Rajani

4th Xug

Cooking Contest This competition came down to two entries:

■ Brelda Venkervale's (Chef at the Rowdy Rockfish) equiquisite rhubarb pie

■ Barnaby's (Chef at the Crook's Nook) spicy fish stew
Carman Rajani favored the pie while Oseph Menhemes favored the stew. The tie breaker was left to the heroes that defeated the underground kobold's and the baby dragon. Largely due to prior involvement with pies on the same day, the award went to Barnaby and his spicy fish stew.
Elsewhere at the festival...
Speeches and announcements

■ Carman Rajani's mayoral speech for the first time seems to have resounded with the crowd. Could there be a new mayor next year? Will our heroes be in town on the day to cast their vote?

■ Brelda is still hoping for news of her son ("please speak to me")

■ Keelo is upping the bounty on Jaul Mezmin to 300 gold pieces!

■ Lady Inkleholtz is planning to buy the remains of the Thirsty Alpaca and renovate it into a school. All donations welcome!

■ Captain Longsaddle announces that local outlaws have been waylaying travelers with firearms: watch yourself on the roads.
Performances
■ TerStehgen boosted the performance of others at the Roseguard play, particularly helping sell Wrin's portrayal of Belecorra. On a much smaller scale,

■ TerStehgen also left a handful of children delighted at the Stroy Time tent with his tall tale telling.
It's not gambling if... Much fun was had at the Turtle Racing, unfortunately Marmalade did not win as predicted, so much money was lost.

Hangovers and worse Alchemical Alcohol and Caffeinated Concoctions were consumed and sworn off by a few.

Harrow Reading Finally the group received a Harrow Reading just after sunset. Followed almost immediately by the awakening of the Gauntlight piercing the Otari Graveyard with an eerie blue beam of light. Likely nothing will come of whatever that was. I'm sure everything will be fine. But still, the group is enroute to investigate the Otari Graveyard.

 

TerStegen was sad that Xeelie was unavailable to create his magic battle axe.  Maybe next time.  We decided to just head back out to the Cabin the Woods.  Immediately we noticed a body in the front yard, covered in a sheet.  The Spider Lurker.  We had locked the doors when we left but didn’t move any bodies.  A second body, a spider, was on the front porch.  In the parlor, we noted that the furniture was uncovered with an odd-looking doll on the couch.  Brian had also updated the map to reflect the web cleaning we did do.  Do we have squatters? More Spider Lurkers cleaning up? Ghost maid? We searched the bottom floor but found no one.  In the study, Oakwood pulled those 3 books and revealed a secret door that simply went into the hallway.  We saw more evidence of tidying.  In the kitchen, someone had prepared spider legs for cooking? We decided to go down into the cellar via the hatch in the kitchen.  In there were a couple barrels of booze, some wood and tools and general supplies for fixing the house.  Plus, a flying talking tiny snake named Ollie.  He was friendly enough and claimed ownership of the house, the cellar, in particular.  Mostly TerStegen talked to him.  He seemed willing to share as long as the booze, his bed of pillows and the cellar stayed his.  He talked about the spiders and a “ghost” but wasn’t too helpful there.  He was the one that had tidied up with his Mage Hand.  He seemed like a wizard familiar gone rogue.

We cleared the webs on the stairs and headed up.  There was a dark spot in the upper hallway that looked suspicious.  A Survival roll said it was a dangerous mold so we avoided it.  Something acidic might clear it but we had nothing handy. The master bedroom was a mess.  As soon as TerStegen went in, he was attacked by a Giant Spider.  Oakwood went first and flug some long-range throwing stars at him rather than plow into the webs.  Missed.  It shot a web, took a bite and then ran into the bathroom.  Clarissa tried to get around it by going into the next door but it was an unattached bathroom.  It has a tub that seemed to be steaming.  It had a rod in the bottom which we assumed heated the water.  (Note: we never retrieved that rod.)  People accused him of being BTO so he shut the door.  The spider hid behind an overturned tub which was a bit of a positioning problem but it wasn’t too tough.  TerStegen searched around while Brisco cast Detect Magic.  They found nothing.  Meanwhile Oakwood moved over to support Clarissa as she checked out the tub.  And she was attacked by a Grey (Clear really) Ooze.

That Ooze was tough.  It had +13 to hit, which then grabbed and then squeezed for more damage on a Fort save over 20.  It resisted damage, which probably depending on the damage type.  And once grabbed, that squeeze took no actions.  And then got 3 attacks/actions.  It crit Clarissa (with a bone chilling16 on the die) and knocked her out with the squeeze.  Oakwood could not help her since she was “in” the Ooze.  It moved a bit next round when it rocked TerStegen who ran in to help.  The next round, Oakwood got her out of there.  And then Brisco cast his AOE Cure to get her up before she bled to death.  TerStegen was also knocked out.  This time, Brisco dragged him out but stepped into the mold square.  Rather than slip or do damage, it exploded in an AOE.  Clarissa went out again and Ter Stegen took another dying level.  Brisco tried to First Aid him but failed.  On TerStagan’s turn, he failed his death save and was at dying 3.  But he used a Hero Point to stabilize at zero.  Oakwood crit it twice which was good since it resisted most of his damage.  He poured a healing potion into Clarissa, rather than risk a 50/50 Medicine roll.  And it was finally dropped.  The Ooze oozed and since it was acidic, he used his Mage Hand to clean the mold with it.  And then carried TerStagen to the front yard.  Dare we hope that was the "ghost"?   

Since everyone was down significant points, we figure we had a couple of hours of Treat Wounds ahead of us.  So, we might as well use our best healer.  On the first go around, Brisco only succeeded on himself.  The next one, he failed on all four.  The next hour, Oakwood tried on only succeeded on himself.  And then Brisco went again and succeeded on all 4.  We were ready to go again when two giant crocs attacked from the swamp.  Again, one of them went first.  It charged Clarissa and again crit her.  And she was grabbed for free.  TerStagen was hit as well and started hacking.  Brisco cast that Runic Weapon on his axe and he was doing a ton.  When it was Clarissa’s turn, Brian realized she was still prone from last fight which meant she shouldn’t have been critted.  But no retroactive play.  He then did the death roll and took her out again.  The players whined and he gave her 1 hit point instead.  Oakwood fought and TerStagen crit for 4d12 and Clarissa did 3 Magic Missiles and they were out.  That was followed by another hour of healing.  During that, we butchered the meat which would have some value in town.  Our only treasure.  We figured we could store the rest in the smokehouse.  That was our last goal for the night. 

But before we could get to the smokehouse, we had to go through the corral and past the barn.  In the middle of the corral was a single mushroom which we looked upon in terror.  We could also see that the earth in the barn was freshly dug up.  But as we surveyed the situation, a couple noticed centipede tracks near the hay in the opposite corner.  We decided to try to burn them out but didn’t want to burn down the whole house.  (Although that notion was gaining traction.)  We grabbed some buckets and pots and filled them with swamp water in case the fire spread.  And then Brisco used his Smoke Staff to lite the hay.  However, before he could get any flame, a Centipede Swarm attacked.  Brian had trouble remembering how it worked so the fight was a bit confused.  It basically moved onto 4 squares (it was large) and attacked 3 players.  It was a stiff Fort save or be poisoned.  No attack roll needed.  Oakwood saved but TerStegen and Brisco did not.  Despite its damage resistances, it was out in a round.  TerStegen made his next save but Brisco did not.  He did a Treat Poison but all that did was give him a +2.  He missed the 50/50 save again and the damage was getting worse.  So, he took Oakwood’s offered anti-venom potion.  Still, that only gave bonuses but he managed to save before he died.  Another hour or two to heal him up.           

It was pretty obvious there was a giant Centipede buried in the barn and we were pretty tired of life-threatening fights but we were here to clean out the monsters so it was back to work.  Oakwood volunteered to open the Cthulhu door, poking the dirt.  Sure enough, a Giant Centipede appeared.  It went first.  On action 1, it knocked Oakwood prone with no roll or save, then on action 2, it hit him for d10+6 for 12 and a poison save which he failed for more 10+ damage and then on its 3^rd action, a tail attack on Ter which missed.  However, TerStegen whacked it, spells were cast and Oakwood finished it off.  But then took more poison damage, thankfully saving after that.  Brisco missed two more Treat Wounds which gobbled up more hours but he crit on the next one.  It was getting late but we decided to get to that smokehouse or die trying.  Which had a Sewer Ooze in it.  For once, it rolled low and went last.  Its AC was like 8.  We attacked.  Clarissa wanted to keep her distance but couldn’t get a shot into the room.  She tried to climb through the broken windows and into the study but missed a DC12 Climb roll with her -1 STR.  If she tried again, she wouldn’t have two actions to cast so Brian gave her a deal.  If she took damage from the glass, she could do the move.  He did 8 on 1d8.  TerStegen killed it soon enough, but it released a filth wave as it died.  Clarissa and TerStegan failed and a crit fail for Brisco.  Oakwood had moved out of the way so wasn’t targeted.  It was only 1d4 damage but did another poison which caused speed to be reduced by 10.  It took 2 rounds to clean up with Prestidigitation.  We told Ollie we were leaving and took some Croc meat with us.  Two rooms upstairs, a storehouse and maybe the swamp area to go.  We made 3^rd.

GM Summary

Session 9 - Starday, 28th Gozren, 4719 AR
Our heroes arrived at the Cabin in the Woods.
     ■ TerStehgen, his tummy now full of delicious bacon, took a nap in the front yard. Attempts to rouse him were met with mumbles about "skewl" and being up in one men-mint". One men-mint never came, so he snored on.

     ■ Casting about with a look of desperation, Briscoe steeped off the path and into the deep woods. Several hours later on his return, a look of mild shame on his face, no amount of coercion was sufficient to force an explanation for his long absence nor how to use the 3 sea shells.
The remaining heroes girded their loins with thoughts of Loin of Pork with Potatoes. It was time to explore the Cabin in the Woods. Tammily's parting words came back to haunt the group, "The combat trainer His deepest thoughts now in hand Your key to enter".

Xeeli leapt into action and immediately ignored these words. Through observation, trial and error, as well as some spells a few things became apparent:

    ■ There was something magical near the front door. A sconce on the front porch had a torch that was bruning, perhaps forever. Thus the name "Torch That Was Burning, Perhaps Forever" was coined and trademarked for later use to consisely describe such a thing.

   ■ Spider webs were all over this house like stink on poop.

   ■ The front door was locked and wouldn't budge even after Xeeli jammed it full of metal shards and made claims of unlocking the thing. Oakwood, chewing on a blade of grass from the overgrown lawn area pointed out that the DMs description of a different thing in the front yard: "A disturbing fusion of scarecrow and combat practice contraption stands nearby in the front yard."

It could be the elusive combat trainer mentioned in session 7. With the care and precision of a bomb disposal team, the group gathered near the object. No amount of prodding or poking was sufficient for it to release even a small amount of hidden, deadly concusive force. His heart in his throat, Oakwood reached inside the "Combat Trainer" and found a key ring with 2 keys (one appeared to be a key for a common lock while the other was for a poor lock). Perhaps copies could be made later, but for now it seemed Oakwood was the victor and the new sole owner of the Cabin in the Woods. The law of Finders Keepers again prevailed.

Investigating the front door, it was confirmed something was jamming it shut. Force would be needed to get inside. Since dumb brute force was asleep, the group elected to circle the house. Breaking open a section of rotted flooring, the group found a +1 Dagger. A side door to the house was found and the common key unlocked the door, but it too appeared to be jammed. Closer examination suggested it was gummed up on all sides by a strong but fluffy white substance...spider silk.

Walking to the back of the property, the group ignored the nearby swamp skimmer (a raft with a sail), broken over turned rowboat (on the other side of a watery expanse) and a trail leading deeper into the swamp (past a collapsed foot bridge). An enclosed porch was found in the back. Someone or something was wrapped inside spider webs and laying on top of a wooden bench. Showing another burst of bravery, Oakwood unwrapped the...garden tools. Who or what would wrap these to look like a body? It's almost like a petulant and unruly child is in charge of the groups fate. Investigating the porch area, while there was a back door, it was also determined to be sealed shut from the inside, likely by spider webs judging by the amount of silk out here and on all edges of the door jam.

Skirting a well and a clothes washing basin, the group found what they believed to be, from Tammily's description, the kitchen entrance. While this door opened, it took effort and finesse to get through the thing. Another open interior door was blocking this outside door from opening fully. The room was indeed a kitchen. Scattered cooking and eating utensils as well as pots and pans greeted the group by doing nothing and laying where they were on the floor. Shutters on the kitchen window were slightly ajar and the window itself was open with a gap of several inches. Perhaps a cat had caused this mess? Hopefully a bag and a stick is around to address the issue.

There were S doors in the kitchen. The outside door they had entered. A door that contained little more than a cellar hatch. A butler's pantry with another door leading into the dinning room. Webs filled the bottom half of the room, but the top half was clear. Something had scrounged all sustenance from this room leaving behind a few broken pots. The second to last door was another small pantry. It was also well picked through with only empty bags, broken pots and empty bottles to hint at what might have been here before. The last door lead to a hallway that split the front half of the house from the back half.

Our heroes entered the hallway and peaked out the window to the outside on this end. It seemed there was some sort of enclosed side yard out there. Toward the other side of the house the hallway became somewhat clogged with webbing. A set of double doors to the right was wide open while a set directly opposite and to the left was closed. On the far side was another door that lead to the outside and the wrap around porch the group had previously used.

Investigating the Living Room area, it was obvious Tammily had prepared it for extended non-occupation. Perhaps the cloth covering the rug was too much. The amount of spider web sticking to every surface suggested a nearby spider den. No amount of peering about would overcome the secretly rolled 1 investigation. Stepping into the room, the group was immediately beset by a pair of giant spiders. Their nemesis from the spider cave was back at double the power...and the group was reduced in size. Surely death had leapt from the shadows. Or not...the giant spiders proved to be relative pushovers.

Some time was spent making a clean path past the office door through the web to the front door. Investigating the office revealed a somewhat weathered area. A large window to the outside from the office was completely shattered, glass strewn inside and out. With legs broken on one side, the cloth covering a large oak desk spilled to the side and onto the floor. A pair of overturned chairs and scattered books everywhere completed the decor. Several large book cases filled one wall, only a 3 volume set entitled "Absalom Trade Procedures: 4708 Edition" remained pristine and untouched on the shelf. Having no immediate need in this remote cabin to conduct trade in Absalom nearly 11 years in the past the books would likely forever remain pristine. A globe that was obviously some sort of disguised liquor cabinet sat in one corner. This was promptly ignored since:

■ No closet alcoholics were in this subset of the group

■ It surely did not contain medical supplies that Tammily used to address the dangerous and sometimes venomous wildlife.

Xeelie did a bit of investigation in the room disguised as tidying up. It was only when she looked back on this time and realized she had started to alphabetize the books that it occurred to her she might have done a bad job investigating, but an OK job of cleaning.

Having decided the moderate encounter with two spiders to have been quite the easy encounter, the group headed to the dinning room with the intention of finding a more severe threat. It was 2 more giant spiders accompanied by a Web Lurker (a hideous spider humanoid). Oakwood was stuck to one door before being sent unconscious. Xeeli was stuck to another door and nearly sent unconscious. However, the group did prevail against the much tougher opponents. Reviving Oakwood and dragging themselves outside, the group locked the house up and staggered back to town.

While in town, Xeeli spent a full extra day to transfer the +1 runes off the dagger and on to Oakwood's Bo-Staff. It was now Starday and the Otari Founder's Day Celebration would start 5 days from now on Oathday. As they were featured guests at the upcoming celebration, the group could not skip it to investigate their home for much longer. Pressure for each member of the party to get a job and become valuable townies was building. After the Founder's Day Celebration:

■ Clarisa will join her mom cleaning the Dawnflower library

■ Xeeli will be responsible for selling towels and wash cloths (whether alongside her mom or not is yet to be determined)

■ TerSteghen either needs to join the town guard alongside Derek Longsaddle (his rival and the son of the guard captain) or work alongside his father at the Lumber Mill

■ Briscoe can eek out a few more years of sleeping late and lazing around

■ Oakwood will continue to be a disappointment and thorn to his stepfather (who needs a constant reminder of his wife's infidelity)

We decided to press forward with minimal mass.  A Monk, Sorcerer, and Rogue.  We started outside our new house which lay where the forest becomes the marsh.  The message of the day had a vague haiku which led us to the practice dummy in the front yard.  In the head of the scarecrow attached to it, was a ring with two keys.  Oakwood unlocked the front doors with his Mage Hand but could not open them.  Some investigation by Xeelie led us to conclude that they were webbed shut from the inside.  We proceeded north along the wrap-around porch and found some mushrooms.  A Nature roll revealed nothing of interest however we suspected the wood would be weaker on that corner.  Sure enough, it gave way under Xeelie.  She missed her Reflex save and took a die of piercing and a die of falling.  However, Brian decided that our suspicions and her plan to grab onto the house if there was trouble was worth the +1 she needed to save with a 15.  In the hole, she did spot what turned out to be a +1 dagger.  We proceeded around but all the doors were similarly stuck and all the windows were boarded up.  It was slow going.  As is usually the case with these modules, with traps and ambushes around every corner, every step had to be precisely described so that Brian would know exactly where everyone was when the trigger was triggered.

The back of the house had an enclosed porch with a cocooned body lying on a bench.  With Mage Hand and Precipitation from Clarissa, we managed to clear enough webs away to discover that it was just gardening tools.  This door was again blocked.  We were getting to the point of just busting in somewhere but there was one more door on this side.  Off the porch, by a well and a laundry tub was another door.  This one also stuck but it felt different.  Like it was running into something.  This time, Oakwood forced it open and entered the kitchen.  It was the door to the pantry that was the problem.  The window over the stone stove was ajar and it appeared that anything resembling food was long gone.  At least there were fewer webs in there.  There was a hatch to we presume the basement.  The door from here lead to a hallway with stairs going up.  They needed a lot of clearing so we went into what turned out to be the living room. 

The furniture was pushed to the center and covered.  On the opposite side was what we thought was the front door.  To the south, the office.  Oakwood started to clear webs with his Mage Hand when two spiders attacked.  They had a pounce attack and he took 4 points.  But they were weaker than the spider we fought in the dungeon and were dispatched in a round.  We cleared a path to the front door although Oakwood switched to using his staff as the Mage Hand was taking too long.  The office was a shambles but mostly web-free.  The two windows were broken.  The books were tossed although there was a 3-volume set about local trade taxes still on the shelves.  We didn’t do much searching since we were in “clearing out monsters” mode.  Back to the main hallway, we cleared the door to the outside on the north side.  And then opened the door into the dining room.  This had the most webs.  The chandelier had fallen and collapsed the table.  Once again, Oakwood was the Christen while the other two hid in the shadows.  (It feels like Call of Cthulhu, taking turns risking instant death at each door.)  And once again, 2 spiders and 1 spider-like humanoid leaped out.

Brian rolled a 19 to web him to the door, a 20 for a 2d8+8=13 fang crit, and then a 19 for a 1d8+6=11 claw with its 3^rd attack.  And our hit point buffer was at 4 hit points.  Thankfully he did save against the venomous fang.  Xeeli shot from surprise at the two small spiders.  Clarisa did her Electric Arc cantrip on the boss and the other.  On Oakwood’s turn, it turned out that he was only immobilized which meant no move actions like Stride or Step but could do Manipulate or Attack.  He tried a Combat Medic roll on himself and failed.  He then attacked and hit for minimum damage and missed.  Miraculously he was missed the next round as was Xeelie.  Oakwood got one more minimum damage hit in before going out.  Xeelie got stuck to a door as well but they managed to finish it off.  Oakwood rolled a 1 on his death save and went from Dying 1 to Dying 3, 4 being dead.  But Clarissa used her Stabilize cantrip to save him.  (Before he could use his Hero Point since being saved was more heroic.)  Xeelie got free and they peeled Oakwood off the door and took him to the front yard.

Xeelie managed a Treat Wounds for 9 and we discussed.  Neither of them were touched.  Since we were short two players, we didn’t want to continue with a wounded front-line guy.  It would take 3-5 hours to get him back up by which point, it would be evening.  We decided to just head home.  We re-locked the doors.  Xeelie wanted to board up the windows into the office but when Brian went into precision mode, we decided we didn’t want to risk another encounter and just left it.  We made it home without issue.  After asking a dozen times, Brian finally let Xeelie roll his magical crafting and she successfully transferred the +1 dagger into Oakwood’s Bo Staff.  It cost him 3.5 gp in materials.  But it took a day.  The festival is getting closer but we stopped there.  Sadly, when Brian calculated the experience, we were 35 short of 3^rd.  If we had only did that one more fight…

We continued to debate on whether we could defeat this dragon.  Whether we were supposed to be able to defeat it.  Whether we could afford to not defeat it.  Brian gave SerTegan a Legend Lore roll and said that it was only a baby dragon, just hatched.  So, it should be possible.  However, once again, the monster initiative was huge and it went first.  It moved up to the optimal position and let loose a poison cloud breath weapon that got all of us.  SerTegan critically saved for none, Oakwood saved for half, and Clarissa, Brisco, and Saps critically missed for double damage.  Double on a breath weapon?!?  That was 5D6 which was rolled separately for all.  Our casters dropped before we could even go.  However, Paul reminded us that we all had hero points.  They rerolled and Brisco saved for half instead.  Clarissa merely missed but she took the low damage on a roll of 13.  (The DC was a big 24.)  So, we were all still up.  The “good news” was that breath weapons had to recharge before it could be used again.

Ironically, Brisco went next.  He was eager to flee but TerStegan begged him to stay.  Instead, he stayed against the wall and cast his 3-action AOE Heal.  That got everyone including the dragon but it hadn’t taken any damage yet.  Oakwood moved into the room (and away from the exit) and took a couple of swings with the Smoking Longspear, figuring a magic weapon might be needed.  I think he hit once all fight.  TerStegan moved in and took advantage of the Flanking and swung twice.  (It had an AC up in the 23 range.)  Clarissa did some ranged damage.  Then it went.  It did a bite on TerStegan for 2d6+1d4+5 sort of damage.  And then gored Oakwood for less and then a reach tail for less again.  It also had a tail reaction that stopped movement but did no damage.  Brisco then cast his last spell, Runic Weapon on TerStegan’s great axe.  +1 to hit but one extra damage die which was a big d12.  We fought on, doing damage and staying up.  By round 4 we could “tell” his breath weapon was about to be recharged.  We took our hacks and then moved away to spread out.  Brisco actually fell off a cliff to get away.  Last to go was Clarissa who finished it off with a 2-hit point Magic Missile.  Clarissa the Dragon Slayer. (Dan: I think I did 5 points on a 2 missile magic missile.  My last action was going to be to find cover.  Killed it by 1 hit point.)

We searched the chamber and found a pile of coins.  We retrieved the empty chest from the last room and scooped them all up.  Like 4-5 gp per player, mostly copper.  We took the body with dreams of dragon leather armor.  (A possibility not addressed in the module or the system but more on that later.)  There was an exit.  We healed up although Oakwood missed his two rolls.  We wandered the natural cave.  Brian insisted we “play” the distance so it took a bunch of pointless time.  We did heal up once more.  Oakwood made a Survival roll to encourage us that we were nearing fresher air.  After all that, we came out on the cliff between the Fishery and the Memedes Estate pretty much in the middle of town.  Again, Brian insisted we make 4 Climb rolls to get down.  TerStegan had no trouble.  Brisco failed the last roll, despite the rope being held by Oakwood and took some damage.  Clarissa failed the first roll and didn’t even try.  But Oakwood was allowed to lower her with some Strength rolls.  And then he came down.

The town was eerily quiet.  Evidently, the sounds of a dragon’s roar had sent everyone indoors.  We headed to the Garrison but were intercepted by a patrol.  They were impressed.  By the time we made it to the Garrison, the whole town knew.  We were congratulated.  TerStegan was eager to convert the dragon body into armor or cash so we launched right into downtime activities.  Brian researched and declared that armor could not be made or at least not armor of any remarkable quality.  We thought, based on the book, it might be worth 300+ gps but Brian offered like 70.  For the whole thing.  Unfortunately, none present had a Society skill to haggle.  TerStegan wanted the head and some claws as trophies and that drove the price down to like 40.  Ouch.  But it was take it or leave it.  He was also eager to transfer the magic of the hand axe to his great axe but he reluctantly waited until Xeeli was back to save 10%.  There was some debate on whether to transfer the Smoking Longspear since that would lose the +1 fire damage.  That was also deferred.  Brisco took it for now since it was a simple weapon and no one could find rules that limited weapon use based on character size.

Clarissa was again grounded by her mother.  We went to talk to the town Cleric about the evil in the crypt.  Oakwood talked her into talking to Clarissa’s mother about letting Clarissa come too, thus forcing Brian to argue with himself.  However, once down there, the Cleric rolled a 4 Religion and we got nothing new.  It was still, use the Memedes amulet to open the crypt and see what happens.  Again, we deferred that until we were higher level, especially since it was still the same day and no one had gotten new spells or healed up.  We then reported to Tammany at the Fishery.  (After giving the dragon meat to Xug.)  She was so impressed and thankful; she gave us her old hunting lodge just out of town.  It was likely run down and infested with spiders and Wade Rats^TM but it would serve as a base and get us out from under the thumb of our parents.  We healed up and then headed out for it.  It was only 15-20 minutes away.  What could happen?

So halfway there, grids appeared and two Wild Boars attacked.  Once again they had initiatives over 20 and went first.  The large one charged TerStegan and hit.  And then with its 3^rd action, rolled a nat 20 for a crit and knocked him out.  The smaller one plowed into Clarissa.  Luckily Brian ruled that Xeeli had managed to repair that Heal Wand and Brisco had it.  He did a 1d8+8 heal on TerStegan.  Although he was still prone, he gave flanking to Oakwood who hit for a nice change of pace.  TerStegan stood up and took some swings.  And then was crit again and dropped again.  We just fought a dragon and some boars are going to kill us? This system is brutal.  But we got the upper hand soon enough.  Their last gasp was a reaction when they went out to not go out but we still beat them.  We hung around for a while so that Brisco could heal everyone.  That reset TerStegan’s Wound status as well so we intend to press on to the hunting lodge.  It’s still like 5 days to the Founder’s Day feast.  Experience will be awarded but we’re still 2^nd.  The next game intersects with JoeCon^TM so it’s likely we won’t have critical mass.    

GM Summary:

Current Date:The date is Oathday, 26th Gozran, 4719 AR Somal's phase is Morning Crescent
Last Session...
TerSteghen's blood was boiling with excitement. He was going to start his adventuring career fighting a dragon. An actual living, breathing dragon!
The dragon breathed. A noxious green cloud spilled forth. It was at this point one of Tammily's many gems of wisdom echoed through the group's conscious mind:
"Green cloud in the morning, Sailors hold your breath!"
Oakwood and TerSteghen, having assisted Xug while he pursued the perfect bean, recognized the billowing cloud of death for what it was. Briscoe and Clarisa, neither very bean savvy, recalled the mnemonic when they saw green. Despite their lack of sailorly skills, they held their breath. Sapps, while also not a sailor, is color blind. He (She?) collapsed in a pile of vines and lawn clippings. (How convenient!)
After such a violent attack, Briscoe decided this was the perfect time to spread his "healing aura". Sapps "drank" it all in and was instantly erect and on his feet. The rest of the group also felt refreshed and glowing, but this wasn't the time for a quick smoke break. Briscoe continued to lend support during the combat. Oakwood and TerSteghen pummeled, stabbed and smashed the dragon from all possible angles. This kept the baby confused and on the defensive. The poor little one lashed out wildly at anybody within range. Briscoe was halted in his tracks several times from a tail lash, in a daze Briscoe staggered into the previous now dark room and over a cliff. Oakwood and TerSteghen were each dealt multiple blows, but they took it standing up.
Sensing incoming death, the group scattered as the dragon began to inhale. Knowing the lives of everyone in town was at stake, Clarisa held nothing back. She hit the Green Dragon Wyrmling with all her remaining magical might. Magic Missile, Force Barrage, you name it, she threw it. The dragon fell under this relentless hail of magical death. It was dead. Clarisa earned the title Dragon Slayer.
Clarisa Dragon Slayer
That has a certain ring to it.
Much worse for wear, the group searched the cave for the fabled Dragon Hoard. Sure, it was a baby, but it was a baby Dragon. Surely it would have a hoard. A quick tour of the cave located both the tinniest of hoards and an exit from the mushroom grotto. The group rested briefly. All wounds were tended. However, TerSteghen couldn't stop his wandering thumbs from finding the holes in his skin and inserting digits that re-opened his wounds.
The group stomped out of the previously discovered grotto egress. Eventually emerging from a cliff overlooking Otari, the heroes scrambled back into town with a wounded TerSteghen bringing up the rear carrying their prize, a Green Dragon Wyrmling corpse.
The town was grateful for the work done by the town's second-ranked teen group. They had outdone themselves. The mayor relayed to his "son" there would be mention of his groups bravery in the upcoming Founders Day Celebration. Perhaps Oakwood could finally be a positive selling point by Mayor Menhemes in his yearly re-election campaign. Regardless, the teams actions was enough to earn a coveted Founders Day Celebration Cooking Contest Judge position. One can never have enough pumpkin nor rhubarb.
Tammily Tanderveil gave the group one final reward. A house in the middle of the nearby swap. She hadn't visited it in quite some time, but a few mouse traps and a cleaning cloth should fix any issues. Maybe Clarisa Fib Master and Clarisa Dragon Slayer could make way for Clarissa I Have A Broom And Some Bleach. This reward would give the group the independence that every teen desires, thus they leapt at the chance. This startled Xug. The group apologized and promised not to be so jumpy.
Walking along the path to their cabin, a giant wild hog and its offspring fell out of nowhere. Ter Steghen couldn't stop salivating with the thoughts of cooked pork products. The pair of porcine interlopers recognized the rudeness and nearly gutted TerSteghen in a surprise attack. Quickly the pair was sent by our heroes to hog heaven. The boar remains were then shrink-wrapped for individual sale (or something similar).
Eventually, the group arrived at the Cabin in the Woods with Tammily's parting words fresh in their minds:
The combat trainer
His deepest thoughts now in hand
Your key to enter
Why a haiku? Why always with the haiku?!?!?!?
NOTE: To be less obtuse, I was just going to give you 1 set of keys to the house, but what fun is that? It is now a riddle. I think it's easy, but that's a standard GM response. Maybe start by looking around, asking questions, paying attention to descriptions, doing stuff, etc. Alternatively, who needs a key, just look at the Breaking and Entering section below.

 

As we waited for people to call in, the players were eager to rebuy their equipment, heal up, and get back into the dungeon.  However, Brian wanted to roleplay the embarrassing dash from the stairs under the kitchen of the Fishery to our homes.  BTO was surprised to learn that Xeeli was to suffer the same fate as the rest.  No gear, 1 hit point, and scraps of cloth for modesty.  His plans of coming to the rescue were dashed.  But first, people wanted to heal up.  You never know what you’ll find when you open a door.  However, the assumption was that our healing kits were compromised so we could not do Treat Wounds.  Luckily, Brisco had a Cure Light at the ready and if he used 3 actions, it became a 30’ AOE.  Next, Xeeli snuck into the kitchen and to no one’s surprise, found a sleeping half-orc next to the stove.  Her first order of business was to “borrow” some tablecloths or other linens however she rolled a nat 1 luck roll and found nothing.  She then slipped out the backdoor and found a clothesline.  But it was rigged such that it would be a harder Stealth roll. 

Meanwhile, the rest of the party were once again left to wonder while she snuck around.  Oakwood led the revolt and said he was just leaving.  Everyone else followed and made Stealth rolls.  Someone (Clarissa?) missed the roll and Zug woke up.  Everyone ran for it, however Xeeli lingered a bit, still hoping to grab something off the line.  I think she tossed something to Clarissa but Zug spotted her.  “Thief!” Followed by “Borrowing!” And then another Stealth roll through town which most everyone missed.  Oakwood was spotted by a guard dashing up the hill.  He simply yelled that he was training, which given his Monk backstory was actually reasonable.  TerStegen made it home without issue.  Clarissa’s mom was out looking for her but a distraction from Brisco got her home.  There were some Deception rolls, but in the end, we all got home.  We spent the next couple days, resting and rebuying.  Aided by some Cure Lights to catch up the big hit point characters.  BTO was eager to use his new Make Magic Items feat to transfer the bonuses from the magic weapons we got into magic weapons we wanted.  However, Brian hadn’t had a chance to review those rules yet so he held him off.  We went back to the kitchen and distracted/bribed the cook with some pastries and headed down.

We zipped to the room with the lizard-like men and were pleased to discover that it looped around such that we could avoid that fountain room.  It was mostly piles of hay for sleeping.  There were a few Kobald bodies that had been relooted after we had.  The only thing of interest was a well-built chest from the Fishery.  It was open.  Inside, among the junk, was a vial of yellow liquid (turned out to be oil), a decanter and a magic feather.  The feather would turn into a 20’ ladder, once.  Oakwood scrambled up a rise and saw into the next room.  In there was a big pit in the middle with 3-4 Kobalds looking at him.  Upon a throne-like chair appeared to be Tammany wearing a big sun hat.  Since Oakwood had a torch, they saw him.  Initiative.  The perceptive casters went first and ran up behind Oakwood.  One Kobald threw a vial of oil at a choke point beside the pit.  Oakwood ran the other way and climbed up to where Tammany was.  TerStegan charged in.  They fired and we fired. 

It turns out she was a casting Kobald with a Hat of Disguise.  She cast Fear on Oakwood but he used a hero point to avoid the critical miss.  Brisco unleashed a AOE that took two rounds to cast a full power.  Xeeli crit 3 times this night, twice with sneak attack dice which had a big impact.  One of them had a smoking-long spear.  TerStegen took a lot of damage.  However, their tactic seemed to be to attack and then flee and soon enough they were all up with Oakwood.  It looked a little dicey since none had fallen.  One even had a Wand of Healing which got used up.  But when Xeeli crit the caster, they started to fall.  And in a round or two, they were done.  TerStegan and Oakwood were mended.  The items were detected and identified.  The wand could be repaired, but at higher levels.  The spear was +1/+1 and if you spent an action, an extra 1d6 of fire.  The main one had a map however the GM needs to figure out what it’s a map to.  All of them had the eggshell necklaces.

We debated whether to continue or call it a night.  We continued into the next room to reach the cliffhanger.  It had giant mushrooms, some of which glowed.  Some Recall Knowledge rolls were made.  We could hear something rustling in the shadows.  Before we could do much else, a large green dragon jumped onto a mushroom.  It roared.  Brian read a text about the villages, happily preparing for Founder’s Day, hearing the roar and fleeing to their homes in panic.  We stopped there.  Is this another threat we’re supposed to run from? Or fight it? (Large is relatively small for a dragon?)  If we flee, what happens? Oakwood asked and was told there seemed to be fresh air in this room so there’s probably access to the surface.  (Perhaps at the collapsed tavern?) If we don’t fight it, does it fly into the town and start killing people? If it does, could we follow it? Since Climbing moves 5’ per action and each action required a roll, climbing out sounds tough.  Assuming the Kobolds moved the egg here and hatched it, better to fight it now than later when it’s bigger.  So, are we heroes? Or meddlesome fools? Time will tell.

GM Summary:

The date is Wealday, 25th Gozran, 4719 AR Somal's phase is Last Quarter Last Session...

Note: I admit to being an untrustworthy narrator. Motivations (and sometimes reality) may be interpreted for comedic effect, but I swear it's all true!

Having barely survived a vicious tongue lashing by a Gibbering Mouther, our heroes re-traced their steps back to the basement of the Otari Fishery. Xeeli again volunteered as scout to verify if it was safe for her friends to sneak through the kitchens and thence outside. She immediately found Xug's massive form sprawled beside the stoked fireplace snoring loudly to punctuate his orc-flavored dreams. Ignoring whispered status queries up the stairway from below, she spent a significant time searching the kitchen for just a single extra stitch of clothing she could drape on Clarisa. Despite investigating every nook, cranny, and cupboard, Xeeli found nothing more than dust bunnies to wear.

Glancing out the back window, Xeeli finally understood the cause of her predicament. Tammily was on another cleaning spree. Every tablecloth, towel, washcloth or any type of fabric was recently washed and either hanging to dry or folded and stuffed into laundry baskets. Again, ignoring the growing levels of anxious energy from the basement where her friends were in the dark in more ways than one, Xeeli exited via the back door with some wild notion of saving the dignity of her friend Clarisa. Her search for fabric could not be stopped by a single closed door to the backyard!

In the basement, the remaining heroes were at their limit. It certainly seemed like at least 30 minutes since Xeeli left. As was typical, she completely failed to set boundaries on expected updates let alone actually supplying the group with any timely updates. A quick word to let them know of the deeply snoring Xug was completely out of the question considering her current quest. Xeeli was on a Clarisa-Must-Be-Clothed Jihad and thus she gave zero thoughts or priority to letting her friends know what was happening.

While she was distractedly searching outside through hand towels and washcloths, the rest of Xeeli's friends snuck past Xug and out through the gaping back door. Clarisa was the last to leave. Ever the epitome of manners, Clarisa "closed" the backdoor with sufficient force to wake both the dead and the Xug. Roused from his slumber, Xug peered out the window at the commotion in the backyard. His bleary eyes briefly locked gazes with a startled Xeeli who was now clutching a small handful of clean laundry that would be supplementary apparel for both herself and Clarisa.

From here each member made their way home individually:

■ TerStehgen jogged through the town with little notice and not even a single comment. We can surely surmise a bit of streaking by the eloquent Orc was a common enough pastime that none found it strange.

■ Oakwood took a shortcut up the hill behind the Otari Garrison. A guardsman shouted complaints at the retreating teens back, but it seems this was a common route used by many of the Menhemes children. Oakwood continued up the hill, to the back of his house and through his bedroom window.

■ Briscoe strode confidently into his own home where he quickly dove under covers and swapped into sleeping clothes.

■ Nextdoor, Clarisa's mom Lux noted the nighttime activities of Briscoe, but her wait was for Clarisa. Seeing her mom awake and waiting out front, Clarisa tied tight the towel provided by Xeeli and marched forward to begin the great Lux gaslighting. The commotion was such that Briscoe's parents became briefly engaged and concerned that perhaps their darling Briscoe was somehow involved. A quick consult with Briscoe proved their little, cuddly snookums would never be out so late on a weekday night without telling them. After confusing and gaslighting her mother, Clarisa went inside and to her own bedroom.

■ Xeeli entered her home to find Wrin engaged in a bit of herbal relaxation. Wrin grinned and waved happily at Xeeli before returning to her medication...er...meditation. Xeeli floated to her bed and slept.

While psychological scars are forever, it only took 3 days and a gallon of mouthwash to remove the physical signs of the encounter with Mr. Teeth and Gums. Having spent a good portion of the coins found below to replace any missing equipment, our heroes again proceeded to the Otari Fishery and through the hole in the basement. Surely a mastermind was behind the missing fish as not even the few Kobolds so far encountered could explain the quantity taken from Tammily's celebration stash. While passing through, Xeeli returned Tammily's now clean laundry to a startled Xug who seemed hesitant to interact with the ruffian lass.

Our heroes made their way to the back entrance of the kobold sleeping area. The area was searched to reveal a few overlooked items left behind in the now abandoned caves. Having had enough of Xeeli's "scouting" (aka glory hounding), Oakwood strode into the next room to find a mute Tammily surrounded by Kobold toughs. Her face hidden by a floppy-brimmed hat she motioned for the heroes to go away. Taking this as an invitation to put Tammily's life on the line, the group charged in to attack We will rescue you!", yells the group as Tammily stands and hits TerSteghen with a Magic Missile...er...I mean Force Bolt barrage.

The battle rages in the room as various actors skirt the 20-foot-deep pit. TerSteghen faces the hold-out group of Kobold bandits head-on...and in turn, has his head nearly taken off. Oakwood attempts to flank Tammily's Kobold kidnappers. However, the heroes quickly clue into the fact that it isn't Tammily they are facing in combat. A closer inspection reveals this Tammily is a fake. A fear spell is attempted on Oakwood, but he shrugs it off. Clarisa and Briscoe press forward to take pressure off TerSteghen. From a distance, Xeeli launches one after another 3 perfectly placed arrows toppling the Tammily somewhat-but-not-really-lookalikish foe, causing her to topple forward dead. Maybe Xeeli should have been allowed to glory-hound this one alone?!

Adding a few more scraps of treasure to the groups coffers, all breathe a sigh of relief. The Kobold Boss was slain. While the mystery of the egg shards has not yet been answered, it surely can't be that important. It's only an egg. One final room stuffed with large and small glowing mushrooms awaits exploration prior to putting this Kobold-led fish raid to rest. Still, that was an awful lot of fish for a few Kobolds. And why did they decide to shatter the fish barrels in the mushroom-filled chamber. Oh well, a quick search and then home. Thump! Something landed on a giant mushroom. Something big. Something with a loud roar heard all the way up through the ground in Otari itself. Something dragon-shaped.

A Dragon?!