We started with recreating our characters in Forge.  Brian thought it was a better program than FGU although he hasn’t committed as of yet so we had to update FGU to level 4 as well.  Whether it’s better is TBD.  That process was okay.  Basically, find your feats et al in the online books and drag and drop them into the slots on the character sheets.  E.g. Find Monk’s Stunning Fist and drop it into the 2^nd level Monk feat slot.  Same for gear which proved a bit tougher.  The spell casters needed more time.  The first order of business was healing Oakwood who ended last time at zero.  (Now 12 since he leveled up.)  Brisco used his focus Goodberry (now Cornucopia in PE2.1) spell but we could not figure out how to apply it to Oakwood.  He kept healing himself.  Eventually we gave up, applied it manually and moved on.  Next, he tried to Treat Wounds and had the same problem.  Eventually we gave up, applied it manually and moved on.  (After the game, Brian figured out the issue.   We were “targeting” Oakwood and we should have been “selecting” him.  He was still down 18 but we didn’t want to spend an hour or use consumables or waste a healing staff charge when it could be used to heal everyone.  We’d just be careful.  And ran right into a boss battle.

The small hallway that TerStegan had cut down the last fleeing Evil Smurf had a skeleton statue thing made out of bones and roots and mud.  It did not animate when we opened the doors behind it.  That room was big with a throne like chair made out of bits and pieces.  On it was the boss along with a giant spider and two minions.  At least this guy spoke common.  He greeted us and asked what we were doing.  Oakwood did most of the talking.  He was honest and stated that we were investigating the relit Gauntlight.  He was aware but claimed no knowledge.  He ruled the ground floor and they didn’t go up into the tower.  The level below was ruled by a mushroom people who had kicked them out.  He did say that a couple of big folks came by last week via boat (which we found last time) but he assumed they got eaten by the “swamp dragon”.  He was a little vague as to where but it lived “outside”.  He offered us a deal.  Kill the mushroom folks and bring the head of their king and he’d give us a bag of gems.  And don’t kill his people along the way of course which we already had.  Oakwood asked how to access the downstairs and he said there were stairs down which we hadn’t found yet.  He offered to draw us a map but wanted two gold to cover the cost of paper and ink.  Oakwood declined, figuring it wouldn’t be that hard to find stairs.

Oakwood and Brisco noticed the sand and debris in the center of the room was a crude map.  Oakwood thought it was of the keep but Brisco thought it was of Otari.  (On two different Society rolls.)  Once pointed out, Oakwood agreed.  It had arrows drawn for possible attack points.  Brisco asked/accused and the boss denied/deflected.  At this point, Oakwood sort of agreed so that we could leave and confer out of earshot.  Obviously, they were bad guys with designs on Otari.  But their numbers were way down due to the fight last time so probably no longer a threat.  Brisco wondered if he was responsible for the Gauntlight attack.  That didn’t seem likely but that was more of an opinion.  They seemed like puds, not masterminds.  We were hesitant to attack, being down two players and one being wounded.  They had us outnumbered.  Plus, it was already late and we weren’t really up to a boss battle.  We could head down but we didn’t want to emerge depleted and get jumped by these guys.  They were going to notice the dead soon enough.  Oakwood was hoping to lure some of them out so that we didn’t have to face all of them in their lair.  But not sure how.  We decided to search the rest of the keep and at least find the stairs.  If they noticed the dead and some attacked, that would work for us.

As usual, the fog of war made it hard to visualize the whole map.  After some wandering, we found there were at least unaccessed 3 doors that we knew of.  One was in the stable with the dead giant toad.  We were afraid the dragon was near there so we deferred, again hoping for more people before taking on a dragon.  The middle door led to a ruined library.  We did a quick search of a desk and found 3-4 potions in a hidden drawer that was no longer hidden due to decay.  Oakwood took those for further study during the next bandage session.  The next room was some sort of salon.  A search in there revealed two things.  Oakwood found a key ring with 3 iron keys that had rusted away and two bronze keys that were still functional.  Brisco found a secret door.  That led into a chapel next door.  (Likely where the 3^rd door lead based on the map.)  There was a decaying thief at the other side, evidently killed as he investigated the secret door on that side.  There was an altar and stain glass windows with disturbing scenes.  The whole room was oddly cold (ghosts) with water trickling down the walls with skulls inlaid.  Once again, it was too late and we were too few to take on a ghost so we stopped there.  We face 3 threats, each of which, at best, would require hours if not days of recovery afterwards.  I guess we’ll pick our poison, gather the unconscious and run back to town.  Logically, that’s probably the Smurfs since the other two will stay as they were and the Smurf might rally, flee, hide.  Next game, we think is Jon’s.