We started with a Battle of the Bands in the tavern that had no business exiting down here.  I.e. a skill challenge.  Oakwood used acrobatics, rolled a 7 for an 18 and lost.  Brisco used his Wildsong (nature) augmented with a summon animal for a +1, rolled a 10 for a 25 and a win.  Clarisa breathed fire with a focus spell to use intimidation, rolled a 14 for a 26 and a win.  TerStegan finished with performance with musical accompaniment cantrip for +1, rolled an 8 for a 24.  That was a tie but it went to us.  Lastly was a group roll with a +3 for the 3 individual successes.  TerStegan rolled that for us, rolled a 15, got a 32 for a win.  But he wanted better so he used a hero point and rolled a 4 (14) for a 31 and a win.  No cash prize.  Nothing gained.  The band left the stage to their room behind.  We talked to a Morlock barmaid.  She was eager to “go under the knife” and be upgraded like the Female Drider bouncer.  Evidently, they were all waiting for the call.  The drink options were poor after 500 years.  Unfortunately, only TerStegan could speak undercommon so the rest of us were sidelined.  He tried to get directions to the head surgeon but they were pretty convoluted.  But truthfully, we were going to go into every door eventually so it really didn’t matter.

The closest door was where the band went.  It had some stage props and another door.  The band was in this room, smoking some stuff.  TerStegan talked to them a bit but they had nothing useful to say other than don’t piss off the Drider.  The next door was into the band’s dining room.  Another door lead back to the bar and to another door.  That door led to a room with no doors, some sort of office.  And an unknown creature.  She spoke 3 unknown languages until she got to undercommon.  She offered to hire us as the new band when TerStegan told her we beat the current band.  She fired them on the spot but TerStegan talked her into keeping them since we had better things to do.  She then said the audience over, get out.  So, we left. 

We were back to the tavern.  We went through a door behind the bar that led into the kitchen.  The bartender was annoyed but didn’t do anything.  There were 3 people, chained in alcoves.  One was an unconscious drow, obviously beaten.  The deep gnome looked okay and the 3^rd was a human woman with a missing hand and hanging from a hook.  We shut the door before we started talking to them.  The drow said he was waiting to be transformed.  He had been captured from his drow land, deeper underground.  TerStegan tried to get more information on where and what that was but didn’t get anything.  I suspect the module left that undefined.  I.e. it was “elsewhere.”  He was going to try to pick their locks with Xeelie missing but Oakwood’s key to the cabin was similar enough to work.  The drow thought he could find his way out if we took him to the central spiral staircase.  The gnome was evasive about his home but took the same deal.  TerStegan asked them to put in a good word for us in their homeland in case we ever ended up there.  They promised to take the human with them since she was pretty out of it.  We did pick up a jar of deadly nightshade mushrooms in that room, assuming it was worth something. 

There was one last door into a pantry.  However, it was full of yellow mold.  DC 26 Fort.  TerStegan crit failed that for drained 2 and 4 points of damage.  Brisco tried a treat poison on him and rolled a medicine check.  He succeeded and gave him a +2 on his next save which was next round.  He got a success and dropped one stage.  Brisco’s next roll was a failure but not a critical failure.  However, TerStegan crit failed the next save and took 16.  Brisco gave him an antivemon potion for +1, missed a medicine, used a hero point and did a crit success.  That all gave him a +5 but he still failed and stayed at drained 3.  The next time he rolled well but the spores expired after 6 rounds anyway.  But there might be treasure in there so we kept at it.  Brisco went and talked to the spores but could only manage a 15 diplomacy roll.  But the GM made him open the door first so he had to make a save.  And now he was poisoned.  He stepped in to do a quick search since it couldn’t get worse? He spotted a potion and grabbed it.  His next save was a crit fail, stage 3 and took 11.  He tried to treat poison but failed.  He missed that save and took 21.  Oakwood gave him his antivemon potion and he eventually got better.  Oakwood did his healing thing and then Brisco did treat wounds on both as well.  It took a total of 30 minutes to get them both back up.  And probably more wall clock than that.  The potion turned out to be a moderate healing potion but since we used two potions in getting it, it was probably a net loss. 

The next door led into another teleportation room that was being used as a store room.  TerStegan and Clarisa were experts in the needed skills.  She made the roll but he did not so it was not activated.  Another hour used up.  Oakwood convinced them that we really didn’t need to fix this one right now.  We moved on.  We went through the bar and out the main double doors.  No one objected to the freed prisoners coming with us.  That led to a short hallway that then went to a long hallway.  That led to the room Clarisa fell down into.  But that finally got to the spiral stairway.  However, we ran into a couple guards.  The large Seugathi guard went first.  It moved up and used its reach longsword on TerStegan.  But it licked it first to add poison to it.  And crit with 20.  22 points plus another Fort save.  He crit saved that.  Brisco started within the range of the Pitiful Moan but made his Will save.  He moved into the stairway and did Rousing Splash on TerStegan across the gap.  TerStegan made that Will save as well.  But he was in another aura and made that one too.  He turned on his aura, stepped forward and attacked the large thing.  And did a mere 15.  Oakwood turned on his aura, moved up but not close enough and crit with a blast.  But sleepy DG accidently did vitality damage so he did none.

Clarisa moved up and missed with a TK Projectile.  I think she was the only one to miss a save for sickened 1.  The small guard missed TerStegan with a claw.  It tried to push past him but failed.  And missed again.  The big one acrobatically managed to slide past TerStegan to get flanking.  Although he did take damage from Oakwood’s fire.  He then crit because of the flanking and TerStegan took another 21. TerStegan made that save.  And it missed on its last attack.  Brisco saved and used Electric Arc.  One crit made and on crit missed.  And then missed with his trident.  TerStegan attacked the small one to remove the flanking advantage and crit.  He did 33 and killed it.  It exploded and did acid to most of us.  We all saved but the big one did not.  So, we took none.  TerStegan then swept over to the big one and did 21.  Oakwood hit for 18 and then missed.  Clarisa had to move a bit to get a shot.  She did the TK thing and hit this time.  It was only 9 but it was enough to drop it.  TerStegan got some healing and we sent the prisoners on their way down the stairs.

On the other side of the stairs was a door.  That led to a T.  To the north we thought it went to a viewing area to see the hydras.  To the south, was a room with two alcoves and a door across.  That door was more of an image of a door with no handle.  We were suspicious.  We spiked the entry door open.  The alcoves had key holes.  A round hole for a round key that we found earlier.  Oakwood turned the key and the north door closed, despite our spikes.  But turning it, the other way opened it again.  The other alcove had 4 key holes and we didn’t have that key.  Evidently it would take a master thievery and 4 high DC successes to pick it.  So, a dead end.  We went around the other way through more hydra viewing hallways.  That ended in a wall that looked an awful lot like it should be a door.  It took some rolls but we found the hidden pressure plate eventually.  We think the surgeon guy the mummy wants us to kill is just around the corner.  Another boss battle in a 10 by 20 room.  Next time.     

Once we got going, we entered the dungeon via the Pirate’s Hideout entrance we had dug out last time.  We were stopped at the door by 3 bounty hunters.  They were looking for the werewolf Druid we had killed some while back.  We noted their wanted poster quoted a 1000 gp reward whereas we only got 300.  Evidently the prices were better if you were a member of the guild.  They eyed TerStegan with suspicion, thinking he looked a bit furry.  He told them the tale of how we fought the werewolf and that convinced them.  It was a bunch of conversation that amounted to not much.  TerStegan asked if they had any other bounties but they weren’t going to give away their business.  Eventually, they just left.  So much for our hidden entrance that was instantly found. 

We then headed to the secret door to the south of one of the old guard rooms.  It was a dusty bedroom, maybe for the head guard.  The only thing that ended up amounting to anything was a foot locker.  It had a hat, pouch, and a book.  Clarisa tried to read aura on the book but it fell apart in her hands.  Dan missed a thievery roll that Clarisa was so untrained in, he didn’t know such a skill existed.  There was a debate as to why she’d have to handle it in the first place but we lost.  It was ruled too destroyed to use the first level Mending spell.  From the scraps, it had had some crafting formulas so only Xeelie really cared.  The pouch has 25 gp worth of green gems. Xeelie failed to identify the hat but took some extra time and succeeded on her second try. It was a Hat of Disguise (greater) worth 340 gp.  Xeelie already had a Scarf of Disguise but the hat gave you unlimited uses per day.  That’s probably needed for any serious infiltration.  But like a lot of these sorts of deception things, it is hard to use in a group.  I think the plan is to sell it.

The next door lead to a long corridor downish to the back of another secret door.  That opened to a walkway/viewing area around the battle arena.  The Cheery Man was still there but no one was fighting.  On the west end of the arena was a huge pile of rotting garbage.  We moved in, ignoring the Cheery Man, and up to another secret door.  It was a stone window up a bit.  With a boost, it was a one-way window that we couldn’t see through.  According to the mummy’s map, there was a viewing area behind it.  Past the Cheery Man we could see broken stone statues although the giant spider one looked okay.  TerStegan asked if anyone had a stone to flesh spell. Just in case.  No one did.  We decided to avoid the Cheery Man and the statues but when he called out, TerStegan walked up and started talking to him. “We were afraid you’d make us fight.”  “Make you? No.  But you might want to turn around.”  There were 3 Basilisks.  So much for avoiding the stone spider statue. 

The first one attacked TerStegan with a bite and rolled a 1.  And tried again and crit with a 20 for 30 points.  Brisco went next.  At the start of his turn, the basilisk used its reaction to turn him to stone a bit.  Slowed 1 on a failed Fort save.  He did his doctor visitation on TerStegan for 25.  And threw his trident for 16.  Xeelie was next but a basilisk reacted on her first.  TerStegan used his Counter Performance to use his Performance roll but both rolls would have succeeded.  She cast Loose Time’s Arrow, quickening all but distant Clarisa.  And did her knowledge thing and crit succeeded.  Unfortunately, it had no weaknesses.  Clarisa was too far away to be slowed, hit the injured one with Magic Missiles for 22 points.  The second basilisk did a petrifying gaze (not the glancing reaction) on TerStegan.  He made the 22 Fort save.  And moved away a bit.  And did its reaction on TerStegan’s turn.  He missed the save for slowed 1.  He started his aura and attacked the damaged one.  He crit for 45.  Overkilling it, likely.  He then moved with the quicken.  The last basilisk hit the flanked TerStegan for 9 and did its gaze on Xeelie.  She failed for Slowed 1.  Oakwood didn’t get glanced because he was around the corner at the start of his turn.  He turned on his damage field, quickened moved, missed with a 6 and missed with a 3.

Slowed Brisco did Rousing Splash on someone for temp hit points.  Slowed Xeeile did her knowledge thing and hit for 18.  Clarisa moved up and did the Avert Gaze action to give her +2 on the Fort save.  A basilisk did a gaze on TerStegan and he saved.  And then tried a bite and missed.  TerStegan had flanking with Oakwood and crit for 35.  And rolled a 1 on the next attack.  The other basilisk tried to gaze TerStegan but Xeeile did a reaction first.  (Her class’s reactive attack include concentrate as a trigger.)  And crit killed it.  Oakwood double moved to get flanking again and then missed.  After he saved on the glance.  Brisco cast Tangle Vine to limit its movement by 10 fearing it might flee?  Clarisa used a missile barrage on it.  The basilisk got one more turn, gazing at TerStegan.  But Xeelie got her reaction back and attacked first.  TerStegan saved and Xeelie did 17.  On its last action, it bit for 9.  TerStegan hit with a 4 and did 27, finishing it off. 

We had more conversations with the Cheery Man.  He was trying to talk us into fighting.  He had a variety of options.  Groups, single, various difficulty levels.  He offered 200 gp for the group for a group fight.  Cash whore TerStegan was tempted.  It took a while but we finally pried everyone away from him.  During all that, Oakwood healed the wounded with his Dash of Herbs.  We wandered around the level and got to an unopened door.  It was a room with old bottles and surgical equipment.  Oakwood upgraded his healing kit.  Brisco searched and found a round key which Oakwood added to his key ring. We refocused while Xeelie failed to repair a push cart found in there.  We had a retro-active discussion on the possible value of basilisk body parts.  They had no value but the blood of a recently killed one could be used to reverse those being recently petrified. But we had avoided that but it was good to know.

We moved down a hallway to more double doors that led into the viewing room we had assumed from the window.  It looked like a dining room that had been thrashed.  And there were a couple of ghosts, wearing old fashionable noble clothes.  They were throwing stuff at each other.  We could see that stone window and some glyphs used to control it? The ghosts were ignoring us.  Xeelie tried a roll to figure out what they needed but Brian put us into combat first.  They were “naturally invisible.”  Oakwood rolled a 20 Society to try to figure out their problem.  They said “they were trapped in the arena.”  Brisco deferred his turn.  Xeelie rolled her esoteric lore and got a 26.  “There’s no path to escape.”  Brian was hoping for all the answers but obviously the GM was just giving clues.  Brisco jumped into the initiative and tried to talk to them.  He offered to show them the way out but they were not being reasonable.  Stuck in their curse.  Some of us thought the runes might be the key so Brisco moved to them.  They went next and attacked.  One did a TK Storm AOE but missed on all 3 attack rolls.  It then it threw a cup and missed.  The next one tried to Fear Clarisa but she saved.  And then hit Xeelie for 17.  TerStegan missed the invisible one but the fear attack made the other one visible and he hit that one for 12.  Clarisa tried her Vitality Lash but it saved for half damage.  At least it worked. 

Oakwood turned on his fire damage stance, moved pass them and missed a sad Occult roll on the glyphs.  Xeelie crit the visible one for 46.  And hit again for 18.  13, actually since it had 5 points of resistance.  Brisco had a 1 Arcane skill but rolled a nat 20 to figure out the glyphs.  He then spent 2 actions opening the window.  And as a free action, he mentioned it to them. And they flew off.  Oakwood topped off Xeelie’s hit points and we searched the room, looking for anything of value.  Xeelie found the magic window wall.  Brisco found a small metal box, dented and locked.  It was jammed so he gave it to our thief to open.  Xeelie failed but she heard something rattling around in it.  She used the Knock spell on the skeleton key and tried again.  A 30 opened it to find a ring.  It had a small skull on it, chewing on something.  Clarisa knew that was the symbol of Nimbeloff.  Xeelie tried to identify it.  It was a Ring of Wizardry.  That’s +1 to Arcana rolls and two extra 1^st level arcane spells a day.  A pricey 7^th level object.  Clarisa was the obvious choice but Dan didn’t see any value in two extra 1^st level spells. He hardly ever used 1^st level spells and never ran out of them. The current version of Xeelie could cast arcane spells so she took it.  Extra 1^st level spells are more useful to a part time caster. Now if it did primal or occult spells, it would have been a different character wanting it.

The remaining door led down through some rubble to the next level.  That led into a tavern with live music.  That letter we found mentioned music briefly.  I think we’re done with the 5^th level until we complete the mummy’s task and get the pass key to the saw traps.  So it’s pick your poison on the 6^th level hard foes.  We’ll probably start at the tavern since no one immediately attacked us.  Plus, I’m sure TerStegan is eager to use his Performance skill. 

We leveled up to 6th.  On to the game.  The town elders show up with some guards.  They wanted to assess our power level to decide if the town guards would be able to help in the upcoming confrontation with the agents of the Kartos Consortium.  They had 6 guards and TerStegan said he could take them all on by himself.  He took them out in two rounds with multiple crits and they never touched him with multiple critical failures.  So, they will stay out of the way.  Then Carmine stepped into the ring and they fought to a critical laden draw.  We had 2-3 days of downtime.  TerStegan tried to get work at the upscale Crow’s Cache to earn some extra Income.  He missed his roll so they had nothing available.  He bought his full plate and transferred his current +1 rune for which he borrowed money from Clarisa.  The Rowdy Rockfish was eager to have him since we saved their son. He rolled great and got 5 silvers plus 5 more the next day.  And then he went back to Crow’s Cache the last day and earned 2 gold.  Oakwood picked up his +1 hand wraps from Amecia.  He planted some more trees in the surrounding area and searched for hidden armies.  And then guarded the ballot place on election day.  Clarisa translated some of the spells that we’ve gathered into her spell book. Xeelie built a booby-trapped ballot box.  Oakwood failed to Aid her but she rolled a 20.  She then built magic items for herself and TerStegan.  She worked with Amecia and told her about them being half-sisters.  They buried the hatchet and bonded over blaming their parents for not telling them.  Last was Briscoe. He searched the guard barracks, looking for breeches already in place.  He intimated the guards about being tree lovers or he’d sick TerStegan on them while he was at it.    

So, then we transitioned into planning for the night.  Xeelie would hide under the counter.  Her familiar would be up on the counter.  Brisco wanted to use his “turn into a shrubbery” power to guard the front door.  TerStegan would patrol around outside.  Oakwood would hide upstairs overlooking the lower level and the windows.  Clarisa would hide in a cabinet on the lower level.  At the end of the day, Xeelie switched the ballot box as planned.  She noticed the hinges were not quite right once they were besides each other.  (I.e. she missed that first hidden roll.)  And tossed her flour in the holding cell.  TerStegan was randomly at the south side of the building on his rounds when things started happening.  A tiny gold dragon-like familiar(?) flew in a window, past an alert Oakwood and landed on the railing above the holding cell.  Xeelie didn’t notice anything but she didn’t have any line of sight up that high.  Briscoe noticed a pane of glass hovering (invisible person) by the same window and some sort of gold creature climbing in.  He chose to raise the alarm.  He figured breaking and entering was a sufficient crime.

He saw a black figure drop down from the same area.  They hit the ground and ran into the bushes across the street.  Oakwood stepped over the railing, onto the cage and grabbed the familiar with a 30.  And then turned on his powers.  TerStegan came around the corner but couldn’t see anything.  Brisco ran across the street, after the figure. Unfortunately, that put him off the map which complicated things.  When he got close to it, it looked more blobish than man.  A roll identified it as an illusion.  He yelled that at TerStegan.  He looked around for the caster but didn’t see anyone.  Xeelie heard someone on the cell (Oakwood).  A hidden perception rolled revealed nothing.  Or nothing had happened.  Clarisa heard the yelling as well but inside the cabinet, her line of sight was limited to a sliver.  She could see Oakwood acting but chose to stay hidden.  Next, the GM did stuff that we were unable to perceive.  Briscoe’s illusion disappeared, likely no longer being sustained.  Xeelie and Oakwood took an Arc of Lightning, failing saves of DC 26.  But it was only 7 points.  It came from somewhere on the top level but we still couldn’t see them.  But the window was now open.  The dragon broke free but with only one action, it didn’t go anywhere. 

Oakwood failed on a Seek action and then used his Flying Flame since AOEs don’t need to be targeted.  Something was hit for some fire damage but not illuminated since that’s too useful to get for free.  TerStegan ran up and opened the front door.  He couldn’t see the foe but didn’t have any actions left anyway once he turned on his stance.  Briscoe ran up to the building, rolled a 1 and didn’t climb it.  Xeelie stood up, cast fast healing on herself and did a Seek on the lower level but found nothing.  Clarisa stood up, jumped on the counter and did a Seek of the south balcony.  We had to roll a great perception and guess right so our odds were poor bordering on hopeless.  “Thankfully”, Cryde became visible and cast a Fear.  Oakwood succeeded, Xeelie failed and Clarisa and TerStegan critically failed.  TerStegan used a hero point to avoid the fleeing condition and got a critical success.  Credence became visible, Devised a Stratagem and attacked Oakwood.  He crit for 32 plus 2d6 bleed.  Oakwood turned on the Thermal Nimbus and did Battlefield medicine on himself.  And then took 6 more bleed damage.

TerStegan wanted to superleap across the room and up to the balcony but he couldn’t do it with Jump or Leap.  After much discussion.  So, he used his helm to get an extra Stride, went through the door and most of the way up the stairs.  Briscoe managed to climb up through the window and up to the balcony level.  Xeelie crit failed her Lore roll, gave up on her attack and moved towards the stairs.  Clarisa had to flee out the door.  Cryde cast Dimension Door and ended up down below in the cell. She did reenter Oakwood’s fire aura so took more damage.  She examined the box and identified the defect. We stopped there at Credence’s turn.  Most players had spent their rounds moving and seeking so we’ve barely touched them.  However, only Oakwood has taken any serious damage.  So, after 2 rounds, it’s pretty much a draw.  The turning point will be if we can counter whatever spells they have left when they decide to flee again.  As we’ve seen, we can’t do much against Fly, Dimension Door and Invisibility.

It was a night of dead ends and unbeatable foes. Xeelie snapped into existence and was forced to make a save from the Shrinking Trap we had passed through last time. She critically failed and she became tiny. There was still no guidance as to what that meant, rule-wise, however we thought her reach became 0 which was more of an issue for a melee character. She switched to her less effective star knife. And then the teleporter activated and a bunch of battered creatures appeared. A redheaded woman with a great axe and a plague doctor each carrying two halves of a body. Plus, a crawling hand and one of those Bounders and a bat demon. They had the symbol for “winner” floating on their forehand in a language that only Xeelie knew. That body looked like one of those adventures we met on level one so long ago. TerStegan did a Warfare roll and didn’t get much of anything. Xeelie rolled on the bat thing and identified it as the result of a necromancy ritual. Giant ghoul bat. And that it would be an even match for one of us. So maybe as a whole, they’d be a tough fight for us but we agreed we wanted to defer that fight as long as possible. They moved into the dorm area we hadn’t explored yet. So, we avoided that.

Soon after, another group came through. The losers. The rest of that adventuring party. They had gotten transported down here by the Grinning Man to fight and could not get past the barrier to get back out. We told them we had recently removed the barrier. And then asked them about the winners in case we had to fight them. Giant axe is obvious. Bat is a ghoul. Tough and probably undead. It had a bone chilling screech. The Plague Doctor was a healer and probably a necromancer. The hand just did damage and we had seen a Bounder. Evidently surrender is an option however the victors get a boon. In this case, the body of their friend. Which will probably be turned into another ghoul? They would be losers for 24 hours. We told them there was a path to the exit. They wanted to leave but were afraid the Grinning Man would not allow it. They were going to take a rest and then try it. They headed to the dorm area we had already explored.

TerStegan started talking about sending Xeelie into the saw trap room. But then Zara and her riding dog came up the stairs. She was pleased to see more competitors and asked if we were going to fight. We begged off for now, due to the fact that we were still shrunk. She was a spectator and not a fighter. She went into the mural room and closed the secret door. Evidently that’s where she slept. We had already learned we couldn’t defeat her. So that was another unbeatable dead end. The last door led to stairs down. The other stairs down lead to double doors and presumably to the arena. We didn’t want to go there so we chose the door. That door also went down. Is down the next level? That ended in a big room. There was a large creature chomping on the crystal shards. And big dangerous worm thing with a wand that seemed to be ordering it around. We rolled initiative and fled in order. The beast was large and the stairs, small. But the GM insisted we play it out. It had a sonic attack that sickened on a save and stunned and deafened if you failed. Xeelie failed and used her one remaining action to identify it. Then Clarisa grabbed her and we all fled. Not that way! We guessed that was the 6th level and wanted to face it as 6th level characters.

We recovered and headed to the shrinking room since everywhere else was death. Xeelie thought the shrinking would not be cumulative but would likely extend the duration. But we tried to limit our time in the room regardless. One of the doors was locked. TerStegan bashed the door and it was another teleportation circle chamber. On the normal network. He and Xeelie tried to activate it with a 10-minute ritual. Neither succeeded on their roll. And evidently were Stupefied 1 for 24 hours. That’s minus 1 on Int plus a flat roll to cast a spell. But they were mostly melee guys. They tried again and failed again. The Stupefy didn’t stack but did make their rolls one harder. One more try. Failed again. Use hero points and succeeded. It would be working for d6 days. That gobbled up some time for them and us. The next door was spiked closed. The GM said it would take minutes to remove them. At least Oakwood had the right tool with his climbing kit. He assumed Xeelie was right and stayed in the room. The trap didn’t go off again. Xeelie, seeing that it was safe, searched. However, the shrinking duration ran out while we worked on the spikes. We got big and then we got shrunk again. Eventually Xeelie realized it was triggered by weight. I.e. M but not S or T. It was needlessly complicated and time consuming since it didn’t really impact anything.

After all that, it was a single room. It had more runes on the floor and walls. Ruined furniture and a mummy. “Who are you?”, in a language only Xeelie spoke (DR-I think this was Necril.  Clarissa speaks it too but by the time I looked it up it didn't matter any more). Chaffekim. Xeelie thought the runes were “boosting” its power? It switched to common. “What’s going on? Was Belcora still in charge?” We told him she’d been dead 500 years but power was rising and we were trying to stop it. He called her a fool. Evidently, he was providing an army for her back in the day. We asked what he would do, now that we freed him. Return to Oserum where he’s from. But if we were to perform a service for him, he’d reward us. He wanted Jafarkey or the imp Zuk, killed and proof brought. He described them and the main one sounded like the same species as the thing we fled from not long ago. Evidently there are a bunch of them on the next level.

For our reward, he’d provide the password for the blade trap which he built and a map of this level. But the foes were on level 6 so a map wouldn’t do us much good then. TerStegan said that we’d get to level 6 faster if he gave us a map of level 5 first. He tore a page out of a book and sketched a map on it. The page had a Freedom of Movement (level 4) from a spell book on it. We asked about the Grinning Man and the arena and he knew nothing about it. We could have spent all night questioning him but he said he had things to prepare and closed the door on us. Our best guess, he went afoul of Belcora, was imprisoned and used his spell knowledge to turn himself into a mummy in order to survive. I.e. unbeatable again. I doubt we want to release a mummy to walk the land but I’m not sure we can do much about it.

Somewhere in here, the adventure party showed up, asking about the exit. We hadn’t had a chance to discuss as a group, whether we wanted to reveal to them about the teleportation circles. They said,”what’s in that room?” Brisco said, “what room?” Xeelie said, “you mean the one with the teleportation circle we just fixed? Help yourself.” So, they left. Whether they actually got out, I guess we’ll find out. Back past the mold room, we found a kitchen. The map pointed us to a secret door. That corridor had bones similar to the saw room. That trap is big and had 3 entrances into it, according to the map. Even with a map, this place was very maze-like mainly because there were crisscrossing levels within the same level.

We went down a hallway to a bridge across a grand north/south hallway. That hallway lead to the arena? That hallway had a star mosaic on the ceiling. A skill roll indicated the stars were from the perspective of a different planet. Impressive but not very useful. Far to the south, we could see statues of various fleshwarp creatures. Most of them were broken and melted. Mouthers and abominations. TerStegan tried to get more information but it was too far away. We could see the Grinning Man, sitting on his throne. TerStegan was still headed for the guard room mentioned in the letter since it said something about an exit. Oakwood and Clarisa, being in the back, noticed the Grinning Man noticing us. Another unbeatable foe. We went across another bridge that ended at a portcullis. And double doors behind it. Some of the bars were melted and twisted such that a small person could slip through it. And as luck would have it, we were all currently small or tiny. It was still a DC 18 acrobatics roll which isn’t trivial, especially if you didn’t happen to have that skill. Tiny Xeelie slip past with ease examined the locks on the doors. We could see arrow slits but no one was shooting. Oakwood made it through on two tries. Since there was only room for two between the bars and the doors, they opened the door so that we could move more through. That revealed a room with more doors.

And a Greater Shadow emerged and attacked. It had a +20 Stealth and went first. It hit Oakwood for 17. Then stole his shadow and gave Enfeebled 2. (STR drain.) That created a new shadow called Oakwood’s Shadow. It then hid in Xeelie’s tiny shadow. It was now Concealed which meant a flat check of 5 to hit it. But Xeelie’s lantern made it a 4. Clarissa cast Revealing Light in the area. It succeeded as did Oakwood but Xeelie failed. That meant Dazzled for 2 rounds or 1 minute but canceled concealments. So, it was not concealed but everything was concealed to them. Brisco missed with Ray of Frost and then missed with his trident. TerStegan faced a Acro 18 or an Ath 30 roll. He used his helmet for a +2. Only got a 23. He used a hero and failed again. And then he used Acrobatics and made it. GM let him move into the room since the thing was hiding and not resisting. Xeelie moved to get flanking and then rolled her knowledge thing and rolled a 20. It was resistant 10 to everything except force, ghost touch or vitality. And then she missed. And missed again. Oakwood crit but remembered he was Dazzled, rolled a 2 on that check and lost it. And tried to attack Oakwood’s shadow and missed.

It went again. It hit TerStegan, stole his shadow and created another shadow spawn. And missed Oakwood for its last action. But it was Dazzled, so retroactively it missed that flat check and none of that happened. Clarisa did a Full Force Barrage and finally hurt it. Brisco did Vitality Lash and it saved for half damage. He wanted to throw his trident again but it was pointed out that he could not go through the portcullis. So, he cast Guidance on Oakwood instead. Oakwood’s shadow walked through the portcullis and attacked Clarisa in the back rank since she was the one doing damage. And it missed twice. TerStegan pulled out his Ghost Touched hatchet and attacked. (It was debatable whether he’d do more with his great axe, taking the minus -10 to damage but if you got it, might as well use it.) He hit for 9, but it took it all. Xeelie attacked and made the flat check. But then she missed and then missed again. And again. Oakwood made his flat check and missed and made it and missed. It went and did something. Clarisa felt “marked for death” whatever that meant. And then it fled through the north door. However, TerStegan got a Reactive Strike and crit for 18. And that dropped it. GM assumed its spawn died too.

The north door was to another room. A guard room but no guards. Nothing worth anything on the empty weapon racks. Another door, another empty room. Arrow slits here and there. The south door did the same. The mummy’s map indicated a secret door down there. Brisco looked but didn’t find it. TerStegan tried and found it. It’s helpful to have a map. Meanwhile Xeelie attempted a crafting roll to hold the portcullis open. And failed due to the still present Stupefy. That secret door led to double doors which led to a long hallway. 100 feet down the tunnel was collapsed. The GM said it would take hours to clear. Although the tiny might be able to get by. Since the letter indicated there might be an exit/entrance, we dug. It led to the smuggler’s den. That’s 10 minutes from our house. How the elevations work out, we’re not sure. And the fact that this circumvented the whole gather items to remove the barrier thing, we’ll ignore. We stopped there. We’re fine on hit points and not down too many spells since we can’t seem to find much we can fight. But the conditions are adding up. Although some had expired. We might try to finish off the level before sunset or just head home. The re-election is 3 days away. From the map, there are 4 rooms yet to have visited. Plus, the arena? Brian declared us 6th via email so hopefully that’ll help.

We awoke in our beds at the clubhouse after a long rest.  At breakfast, we started the same debate we had the previous morning.  To hang around town and prepare for the (re)election while Xeelie built magic items or go back to the Gauntlight.  But that was cut short by a knock on the door.  It was the town elders including mayoral candidates Osef and Carmine.  They wanted to consult with us about the election.  Evidently Carmine had agreed to withdraw from the contest.  He had never intended these sorts of tactics. He was just taking advice (and money) but didn’t fully realize what was happening. Despite the lack of hard evidence, they were now convinced the accountants aiding him were under the employ of the Kartos Consortium and they meant harm to the town.  They were looking for ideas on how to catch them so that they can arrest them? I’m not sure what happens to them if caught.  It’s not like Otari has a prison.  Execute them? Send them packing? Away, we were pulled back into this mess.

Some ideas were bandied about.  None of them were very hopeful.  Mostly TerStegan came up with a plan of sorts.  Carmine can act as a double agent to try to get them to tell him their new plans.  It was pointed out that they didn’t include him in the old plans but perhaps if he said something along the lines of “I didn’t realize you guys were prepared to use such tactics.  I’m all in.  What’s next?”  It seemed obvious to us that if we took no new measures, they’d be suspicious and were not likely to try again for the ballot box.  However, Osef said that it would take a unanimous vote from the council to deviate from town tradition and that’s not likely to happen.  Along those lines, Carmine will tell them our plan was to count the votes the day of the election but that he could stop that vote and put them back in the guard house overnight.  With extra guards.  (I.e. some of us.)  If they tell him they have a new plan, we counter that.  If they go for the box again, we’ll put a paint bomb in it and they’ll be marked.  Caught red handed.  Of course, if we catch these two, that still doesn’t tie them back to Kartos but I guess first things first.  While they pulled it together, we were told (by the GM) to go back to work on the Gauntlight.  Xeelie did get Carmine to agree to have his daughter work on our magic item transfers.  It doesn’t actually save anything, having Xeelie doing them so it doesn’t cost us anything to have Amica do them.  That way, we can push that forward without leaving Xeelie in Otari.

Brian wanted to know where we would be entering the current level.  That prompted a discussion on fixing the portals.  It turns out, reactivating dead portals takes no money.  Just an hour of time and some skill rolls.  So, we turned on the one on level one, near the swamp dragon lair.  (The one on level zero was broken and would require money and acquiring a more difficult ritual.)  Xeelie made an Arcana roll and TerStegan made an Occult roll.  That turned it on for 1-6 days.  Next, we went to level 3 in the library area.  That ghoul we didn’t kill was busy repairing books and shelves and such.  Along with some of the other left alone creatures.  Oakwood asked if he needed anything since he was kind enough not to give us any trouble.  He needed paper, ink and such.  He had piles of books ready.  Each 1 Bulk was worth 5 gold pieces.  And now that we had extra portable holes, we could haul some away.  (So much for helping him.)  We repaired that portal and since one of them rolled a critical success, it would be activated indefinitely.  We then proceeded to level 4, next to the dining room. 

It was here that Brian sprung his trap.  (We should have been suspicious when he cared which way we were coming.)  We saw an undead thing in the form of Volluk Azrinae.  We had already faced a version of Volluk in this room and almost died so we were not thrilled to have to face him again.  But this was a different form.  First of all, its stats were jacked up as usual to face a whole party.  Each round, it got a reaction to cast a Deathly Gaze which Drained.  1 on a stiff Fort save and 2 on a failed.  That gives -1 to Con stuff including a level’s worth of hit points off the top.  TerStegan and Xeelie were soon afflicted.  Once “gazed” it had another attack that did damage and put the Doom condition on them.  That meant you were one or more steps closer to death.  And to add insult, it was against that depleted Fort save.  Plus, a fist attack, high AC and saves etc.  Xeelie’s attempts to identify it kept bouncing.  It didn’t do a ton of damage so the real worry was the threat of character death.  Once again, Brisco showed up in time to start healing people.  Oakwood hit above average and Clarisa used a full load of Magic Missiles.  On its 3rd round, Clarisa actually saved against that gaze.  Thankfully Oakwood, who’s primary stat is Con, did not get targeted.  So as often is the case, we were afraid for our lives in rounds 1 and 2 and it was dead by round 4. 

Evidently it was a remnant of the original monster.  According to the rules, Drained and Doom take a long rest per level to recover and they were down 3 and 4.  However Brian said that this “depends on the monster”.  So, we spent a couple hours mending the teleportation circle.  One of them rolled a critical success so it was up permanently.  Evidently, they recovered a level per hour (or was it two).  We healed up and decided to press on since this was the first fight of the day.  (I’m not sure why we didn’t wait some more hours for them to fully recover.)  We hadn’t found the circle on the current 5^th level but we hadn’t seen much of it yet.  We went down to that level and down a hallway and came to a door.  Xeelie was prepared to pick it but Oakwood used the copper key we got last time.  It was a storeroom full of organs in jars and limbs wrapped in paper.  There were some medical instruments but they weren’t worth anything.  What there was was two weapon racks with a “gnarled stick” on each.  One was identified as a Wand of Summon Animal, level 2.  There was much discussion on what kind of animal a level 1 animal was.  Answer, not much and certainly not worth a 3-action cast and an action to sustain.  Brisco took it but I think it will be sold.  The identify on the other wand failed so it was stowed for another try later.

The next room had two pits in the center plus three more in alcoves on the far wall.  There was a stone throne with two levers.  And two creatures.  They were abomination sort of things with frog legs and multiple tongues.  Their stats were comparable to ours which was good but it was their special attacks that were the issue.  One went first.  It leapt onto Xeelie, tossed her 5 feet on a stiff Reflex save and threw her down the pit.  She got a Grab an Edge Reflex save which she made.  It then hit her with a trip attack which dislodged her but then failed to toss her into its mouth.  Good news, she fell 55 feet down, taking 22 points.  When the second one went, it did the same to TerStegan except he missed the Edge and just fell.  And before anyone could go, the party was split.  That’s never a good thing however most of the healing was up and most of the damage dealing was below.  So that became two fights as Brian switched from map to map.

Above, when they could finally go, they used movement to back away from the pits and get into the hallway.  Thankfully, they didn’t have reactive strikes.  The monsters were still hitting and tripping but 5 feet or 10 feet on a crit wasn’t going to get them down the holes.  Thankfully those attacks suffered from MAP.  Neither side did a lot of damage.  Certainly not the TerStegan’s 30-50.  Once they got Injured, they backed away too and started using a ranged acid spit attack.  Those hurt more and did persistent acid damage which are always trouble.  Oakwood got good use out of his Aeon stone again and his shield, acting as the hit point buffer.  They finished them off right about the time the other half got back up.  Meanwhile TerStegan and Xeelie landed in an underground lake.  They actually landed on two slumbering Hydras.  TerStegan got to the shore as did Xeelie.  She cast Fast Healing on him.  We could see the curve of the Gauntlight Tower but the stone was transparent.  As if this was an observation area.  Probably so that they could watch people tossed down the pits be torn apart by hydras.  Thankful, the first Hydra rolled a 1 on its perception and didn’t notice them.  It snapped at the second, assuming it woke it up.  The second spotted the fleeing teens but snapped at the first.  All that gave our heroes a couple round head start and they made it to an exit around the corner.  From there, it was up the spiral stairs and back to the rest of the party.

We stopped there.  Brian chose not to do any healing or refocusing or repairing.  So, we’ll start there next time.  A new dungeon level but the same constant fight for our lives.  It’s not easy, saving the world.  

We were still in the circular staircase room at the start of level 5 and chose the door to the east.  In there was a big room full of chains, similar to the torture room we found the level above.  There was a rusty looking grate over a pit in the center of the first area.  And another chain fiend standing there.  There was discussion about trying to fight her from the hallway and avoid the room of chains (i.e. at range) but TerStegan would have none of that.  We moved in.  Xeelie came in saying “Hello” and TerStegan came in saying “We killed your sister, prepare to die.”  Sort of mixed messages.  We rolled initiative and she started attacking us with the various chains in the room.  She could pretty much attack anything she could see in there.  She had the usual Fear effect, forcing everyone to make a Will save or be Frightened 1 or 2.  She also got an opportunity attack on anything that moved (but only once a round).  And 3 actions with a high attack value but at least she suffered from MAP.  TerStegan charged in and she fell back into the corner.  Xeelie moved up and did her evaluation thing.  It was resistant to most everything but vulnerable to silver and holy.  (Holy, not vitality.)

When Clarisa moved in, she plotted her path across the grate.  BTO squawked in surprise and was accused of meta gaming.  So, Clarisa went ahead and fell 40 down to the next level, taking 20.  Oakwood threw her a rope on his turn but it took all 3 actions to fish it out and toss it.  She then spent 3 actions climbing and he spent 3 actions pulling her up the rest of the way.  The net effect was that it was TerStegan and Xeelie alone for the first 2 rounds.  They got battered.  On the second round, TerStegan was crit with a chain and took lots of damage plus 2d6 persistent bleed damage.  And he was grappled (no movement actions and flat-footed) and impaled (can’t recover from the persistent damage).  That was one action for her.  She beat on Xeelie with the rest.  So, when Brisco showed up, TerStegan was almost out and Xeeile is badly injured.  Once he did his usual “I’m running away”, he charged forward and did his battle medicine.  But that and Xeelie’s fast healing wasn’t enough to keep him up.

From there, it was a scramble.  We tried to keep him alive and he tried to fight from the ground.  Xeelie used a healing scroll and Brisco used both of his day’s battle medicine on him.  The other two joined the effort.  Oakwood’s new Aeon stone bounced the persistent damage on him.  Clarisa tried her vitality lash, discovering that holy was not the same as vitality.  By the way, the fiend also had fast healing 10, However, any round that Xeeile hit it with her silver starknife, it didn’t get it.  After a few more rounds, our numbers won out but we were beat pretty good.  Oakwood started handing out Fresh Produce and Brisco did his Treat Wounds.  We searched and found nothing.  Clarisa said that the pit led to another hallway with more doors so we figured we’d get to it when we got to the next level. 

There were double doors to the north that lead to 3 cells.  Each had a pile of garbage and filth but nothing was moving.  We started to search and someone spotted the gleam of copper under the center pile.  Oakwood used his Mage Hand to pull it free and awakened 3 undead blob things.  He turned on his fire damage and took a shot at one.  Xeelie said these were resistant to slashing and piercing and vulnerable to vitality.  Did they have a fear effect? I can’t recall.  They did a flesh slap or a bone shard range attack.  They had no trouble passing through the bars.  They also had an engulf power but Brian was unable to land it.  After a couple rounds, we finished them off.  We searched and found nothing but the copper key.  Our only treasure of the night.  We ate more fruit and went to the double doors to the south. 

This seemed to be an examination room or maybe a morgue.  There were 3 tables and various scary equipment hanging from the ceiling. There was one body on the furthest table.  Brian sort of forced the action, having Clarisa check under the sheet.  It was a carved up Morlock body from which a Specter emerged.  This was similar to the monster we fought in the Otari crypt and pretty mad about being chopped up in its past life.  It had a fear zone and was resistant to everything but vitality and ghost touch.  Thankful, our bright lights made it Clumsy 2.  TerStegan started swinging while the rest of us moved up.  He took advantage of Clarisa standing there to get flanking.  Xeelie attacked and then Oakwood got flanking from her.  However, then BTO logged off and Oakwood’s flanking ceased to exist.  And then Clarisa fled, stopping TerStegan’s flanking.  But then he moved around and finished it off with a 58 point crit.  Again, no treasure or anything of interest.  This level, at least so far, has been much emptier.  It was late so we stopped there.  There was a debate about returning home for a long rest or pressing on.  The casters won out and we went home.  That’ll reset the battle medicine and TerStegan’s Bless as well.  Xeelie is eager to make magic items for people and people are eager to get them so we may stay in town a few days.  That’ll allow us to protect the next election although I think it is still 5-6 days away.

Oakwood was indeed able to “borrow” the Menhemes holy symbol without issue.  The crypt was in the original dungeon under the town.  There were several options for access but we elected to use the first one, under the Fish Market.  There was no issue sneaking past Zug, the snoring orc cook and getting through the locked door into the basement.  We pushed aside the barricade and were back in the caves.  It was like high schoolers returning to daycare.  Thankfully the crypt was only a couple bends away.  The room still radiated evil.  When we entered, the skeleton guards re-reanimated.  However, now that we were 5^th level, they were dispatched quickly.  Oakwood suggested that maybe we should bury the bones elsewhere so we wouldn’t have to fight them a third time.  The GM mentioned something about disturbing the bones of the ancestors and that once the evil was dealt with, they’d be fine.  As a half measure, we removed their swords and short bows at least.  We surrounded the sarcophagus and Oakwood placed the Menhemes holy symbol on the recess.  Lines of power appeared on the lid which then flew off, revealing a terrifying undead creature in the twisted form of his long dead relative.  And she was in no mood for talking.

To add insult to injury, the skeleton bones reanimated as Oakwood feared but as Flaming Skulls so removing their weapons did no good.  As is the case for a lot of these Bad Baddies, it emitted a Fear aura.  TerStegan missed his save but only took Fear 1 due to his Fighter bravery.  He attacked the undead.  When she went, she tried to control TerStegan’s mind with another Will save, but he saved.  (This fight could have gone south fast if he missed it.)  Everybody went on their turn, saving against the Fear as best they could.  The Skulls started flying around, causing chaos including persistent fire damage.  On her second round, she crit Clarisa with a mental attack and she was dropped.  Around then, Brisco showed up and did a 3-action heal which damaged them, helped us and brought Clarisa back.  However, she was still prone so the Skulls attacked her and knocked her out again.  Xeelie was also getting battered and used a scroll to do another 3-action heal and brought her up again.  This heal took out two Skulls which exploded in fire.  But thankfully the damage was modest and by then Oakwood had his 5 points of fire resistance zone up for those near him.  Meanwhile, TerStegan pretty much took out the undead by himself.  When she fell, they all fell.

Her cloak was a Cloak of the Hunter which Oakwood Menhemes took.  It gives +2 to stealth rolls and a couple Ranger powers.  Hunt Prey which for an action, gets you +2 to Seek and Track that prey.  Plus, no penalty for the second range increment.  And then Hunter’s Edge: Precise which gives +1d8 damage on your first attack on that prey.  Attack, not strike which means it works with Impulses? There was no other treasure.  Brian assumed we healed up.  We debated about the bones.  The evil was still present but much less.  We decided it was the evil of Belcora’s ritual and once we lifted it (and defeated her?) it would be clear.  We choose to leave Otari’s bones in the crypt with her bones so that they’d be together when this was all over.  We Mended the lid as best we could.  We then debated our next course.  We could head to the Gauntlight immediately (once Oakwood returned the holy symbol) or we could hang around town for a week in case there was trouble prior to the election redo and watch Xeelie build magic items.  No one wanted to deal with the election anymore and everyone wanted to head towards 6^th level ASAP.  So, for better or worse, we left town.  Truthfully, we’d most likely be returning battered and beaten before lunch anyway.  To the dungeon.

Brian allowed us to show up at the room we needed to be at for the ritual.  (Someday we need to fix those teleportation circles.)  Once again, we had to make a Will save against Fear for just being there.  As we approached, a bunch of Flicker Wisps emerged from the stone in the center of the room.  Same as last time.  They are a pain because they are immune to magic.  TerStegan started swinging.  Oakwood put a Timber Sentinel next to him.  They mostly attacked him because they could get flanking.  Their attacks weren’t too high but they hit enough to use up the tree’s 30 hit points before the end of the round.  But with TerStegan’s sweeps, Xeelie’s attacks and some trident throws from Briscoe, it was over pretty quick.  We distributed the items, Xeelie cast the ritual and the barrier was cleared.  Before going down to the next level, Oakwood suggested we check in with the spirit of Otari.  We had promised to keep him posted.  He was still there.  He was pleased to see we had the items and were able to remove the barrier.  He was sad to hear that we had to fight to get the cloak.  He said he felt something and thought maybe he could move on.  But he didn’t seem to be in any hurry.  Hopefully he can be reunited with his lady love under the town that bears his name when he’s ready. 

Down the stairs we came into a large circular chamber.  There was a spiral staircase winding down out of sight with an ancient iron handrail.  However, it was mostly empty air in the middle with the stairs clinging to the edge.  On this level were 3 doors at each compass point.  Oh, and a Gibbering Mouther.  It hadn’t noticed us yet and we briefly considered slipping past it.  But we’d have to fight it eventually so let’s get to work.  Once initiative was rolled, we faced its Will based Confusion aura.  Clarisa went first, got confused and randomly attacked Xeelie.  At least that only lasts a round.  TerStegan went next and charged it.  On his way, two snail-like aberrations emerged from the corners.  He ignored them and hammered the Mouther.  After a couple rounds with TerStegan, it decided to run through him and get at the rest of the heroes.  However, TerStegan saved against the movement and then crit it with the Reactive Strike as it went by.  (I think that was its engulf power which caused us so much trouble before.)  It didn’t last too much longer after that.  The other two monsters were dispatched soon after.  Basically, we used hero points to save against their worst effects and it wasn’t too hard.  We stopped there for the night.  Brian assumed we’d take 10-20 minutes to heal up.  And then we’re back to opening doors.         

We got another late start as we waited to get up to 3 out of 4.  BTO was unavailable.  We were still stuck on the same evening we came into town.  DG wanted to let the day go and take on the crypt in the morning.  Paul wanted to do a few more things on the accountant/election track.  Dan expressed no opinions.  The GM sort of became the tie breaker. After Oakwood convinced TerStegan to end the day, Amica showed up at our doorstep.  She was worried about her father.  These accountants were giving him lots of advice and money for this election and she feared he was in over his head.  TerStegan told her our suspicions but unfortunately, she had no hard evidence either.  She agreed to keep her ears open and let us know if she hears anything.  So, it was back to that track.  It occurred to Oakwood that the Menhemes mill was just as critical to the town as the log flume so we went over there to talk to TerStegan’s adopted father.  His advice was to attack the accountants and spread their blood as a warning to other troublemakers.  Oh, if it were only that easy.  He agreed to keep an extra watch on the mill.  Captain Longsaddle had already increased the patrols on the log flume itself.

We next went to talk to the mayor.  TerStegan wanted him to know what we suspected even if we had no proof.  He, at least, listened but could not act without proof.  The only resources he had were Longsaddle and the guards and they were already engaged.  One bit of information we got was that the Kartos Consortium was a big logging company from outside of Otari.  We finally had their motive.  To bankrupt the town and take over.  Osef was more worried about his upcoming speech.  TerStegan gave him some tips, making a good Performance check.  When asked if he had any thoughts on other key spots at risk of sabotage, his first thought was the holy symbol.  Since it was the sign of his authority, he decided to always keep it with him until the election.  So much for unlocking the crypt with it.  We were committed to the election, at least for now.  He did suggest the DawnFlower library might be a target as well since it held all the town’s old records.  I think the day finally ended.

The next day was the last day before the election.  We all got one skill roll to have some sort of impact.  TerStegan wanted to use Performance to write another jingle that would stick in people’s heads.  The GM wanted to know if it was to be pro-Osef or anti-Carmine.  He went with anti-Carmine and at the GM’s suggestion, it was about him being clumsy and therefore not fit.  (I think that was more Brian’s idea than Paul’s.)  He rolled modestly and then used a hero point and rolled great.  Oakwood used Crafting to make signs and such.  (Acrobatics wasn’t going to cut it.)  He rolled middle of the road and had little impact but at least didn’t do any harm.  Dan had no interest in any of it.  Oakwood then suggested TerStegan do something about Carmine being under undue influence from outsiders.  We can’t prove anything but we can start a rumor.  Although he had already had his roll, the GM gave him another.  He rolled a 1, and it backfired.  So much for roleplaying in a d20 game.  Other than that, we patrolled around town, on the lookout for trouble.  Brisco showed up around then.  I think he turned into a tree to guard something through the night.  But there were no more attacks.  We successfully grinded past another day.

Election day.  TerStegan and Oakwood voted early so that they could patrol for the rest of the day.  The accountants stopped by to see the “quaint” voting customs of a small town.  Oakwood noted that the Tengu seemed to be “casing the joint” looking at entry points.  But then they left.  Oakwood talked to the chief guard.  Evidently, they were just going to leave the ballot box in the guard barracks entryway and count the votes in the morning.  When Oakwood suggested perhaps he should post guards on it, given the fact that they lost that sword not 3 days earlier.  He was told (after blowing a Society roll) to leave it to the adults and this is the way that’s been working for decades.  Brisco came up with a good idea but I’m not sure how much of it was in advance, in retrospect or what.  Basically, he took the Sigil cantrip for the day.  When he cast his vote, he marked his ballot with a magic sign in witness of some guards.  There was no sabotage and the polls closed at sunset.  Amica said her father met with the accountants but she couldn’t hear what they said.  They looked smugly confident however.

We decided to guard the barracks through the night.  We didn’t want to go in because we didn’t want to be accused of tampering ourselves.  And Longsaddle probably wouldn’t have allowed it anyway.  TerStegan guarded the front and Brisco, the back.  Oakwood hung out by some crates with sight of the front and the north side.  Disinterested Clarisa decided to join him there.  Around midnight, the mute dwarf came walking up, surprised to see TerStegan.  They had a standoff of sorts but since she couldn’t talk, there wasn’t much of a conversation.  They watched each other while the rest of us watched the barracks.  Brian seemed to be trying to goad us into attacking and there was a lot of nothing happening.  She cast a subtle spell that TerStegan managed to spot but again, nothing happened.  He threatened to cleave her if she did it again.  Brisco went back to the back door and sat up against it.  Soon after, someone tried to open it but stopped when it was resisted.  DS misunderstood, thinking someone had come out.  So, he started swinging at empty air, assuming an invisible foe.  He called out for a guard but got no answer, proving, to him at least, that it wasn’t a guard. 

Brisco raised the alarm and the guards woke up.  The dwarf left at a leisurely pace and TerStegan followed her.  Brisco told Longsaddle there was someone in the barracks, probably invisible, that was messing with the ballot box.  Clarisa came around the back to support him and Oakwood went to the front door.  Longsaddle showed Brisco the undisturbed ballot box in a condescending manner but ordered a search to humor him.  At this point, it seemed like a wasted night, where all our efforts were for naught.  But then some of the guards spotted someone in the kitchen.  A mysterious figure in black clothes ran out and it became a skill challenge chase.  The DC was up around 24 which is tough.  Worse than a 50/50 for most.  Brisco and Oakwood made one roll but had to use a hero point to do so.  (Another “heroic” skill roll.)  Clarisa made one but the guards missed theirs and he got away.  TerStegan followed the dwarf back to their hotel but the Tengu never showed up.  Brisco explained his Sigil plan to Longsaddle and asked for the box to be opened and checked.  Longsaddle called for the mayor and town elders.  Oakwood suggested adding the other candidates as well.

While we waited, we questioned the guards.  Oakwood figured it would be hard not to spot a Tengu, even in a heavy cloak.  However, since Tengu have bird feat, it was not hard to confirm those tracks.  Brisco and TerStegan demanded the accountant be arrested but evidently there were several Tengu in town.  That gave him plausible deniability.  The mayor was committed to the rule of law in his town.  They opened the box and Brisco’s ballot was no longer there.  Oakwood suggested that it called for a revote so that is what they are going to do.  To keep things tidy, in one week.  The next day, when they counted the votes, Rajani had the win.  That doesn’t look good on him.  The dwarf was brought in for questioning but the Tengu hasn’t shown up yet.  That took the pressure off for a bit and Brian said we shouldn’t have any trouble “borrowing” the key/holy symbol/town office seal to get into the crypt.  So, we stopped there, poised to use it to open the crypt next time.  Seems familiar somehow.  

We were assumed to have picked up that cargo and started on the road back to Otari.  However, Brian pointed out to Dan that the book we got last time was full of arcane spells.  With Clarissa’s feat, she had a pseudo spell book so she might want to transcribe interesting spells before we returned it.  Or broke it.  That got him looking at his character sheet and he realized, despite her new bag of holding, Clarissa was currently encumbered.  (Not a surprise, given her -1 STR.)  That launched an hour discussion on encumbrance rules, pouch of holding functionality, inventory maintenance, etc.  Basically, that new Staff of Fire was heavy and he hadn’t loaded his pouch and backpack correctly.  She also had some stuff she’d never use like a pile of sling bullets which she could dump.  He also tossed a potion and a wand into the party sheet.  Brisco took the potion.  The wand was a 1^st level Harm spell which at 5^th level, wasn’t that useful.  Brisco decided to “pay” 30 gold into the stash, take the wand and destroy it.  We did acquire it in an evil temple.  In and amongst all that, Paul looked at the email traffic and realized Xeelie wouldn’t exist for another month so all the money he spent on throwing axes and various parts was going to have to wait.  Eventually, finally we got rolling again.

We came onto the map of the Otari area, just before the road went under the log plume.  We tripped an Alarm spell and came upon an ambush/sabotage site.  There were a wide array of goblins, hobgoblins and bugbears who seemed to be guarding a priest in a dog mask performing some sort of ritual.  There was a glowing pentagram under the plume with an innocent farmer acting as a sacrifice.  (That “farmer” had an initiative of 38 by the way.)  There were also goblins unloading barrels and placing them at support beams.  We sprang into action however we were over 100 feet away.  TerStegan moved up to some logs to get some cover from the guys with crossbows.  Some of them moved up to meet him.  Clarissa was eager to wipe them out with a Fireball however it was pointed out that this would likely take out the plume.  An arcana roll indicated that the ritual was conjuring a big fiery explosion with the addition of making fiery explosions in the area bigger.  She decided not to do their job for them.  She instead took a shot at one of them.  The mounted pixie was still with us as she had business at the Dawnflower Library.  Brisco stayed with the wagon and moved it forward. Oakwood turned on his powers and used a manifested wooden long bow to hit the priest now that the wagon was within 100 feet.  Brian rolled a “concentration” roll and he kept control of his ritual.  The minions weren’t too tough but there were a lot of them.  And those crits still hurt.  They all had different abilities so it was slow going while Brian navigated through the big list.

TerStegan continued to swing and crit and cleave bad guys.  The next time the wagon moved, Oakwood no longer had a shot at the priest.  Since no one else could reach him, he got off and shot him again.  This time, he missed his roll and the ritual started to get away from him.  Would it get worse or better? A random die would tell, evidently.  That made Oakwood a prime target and he was hit with 3 bolts in rapid succession.  The ritual got “better” and shrank a little.  The pixie ran across the map on her raptor, cast a Gust of Wind on the ritual and pushed it away from the plume a bit.  And then ran back to give TerStegan flanking.  With his axe mastery and Bless spell, he could hardly miss.  Brisco got off the wagon and did BFMed on TerStegan and himself.  Even though we weren’t yet close to the caster, he decided it was time to go.  He grabbed the “innocent victim” and flew away with a fly spell.  At this point, Brian pulled us out of combat.  2 rounds.  The ritual went off but the plume was saved.  The villains got away as was preordained by plot requirements.  The pixie tried to follow them but flying over a forest as opposed to running through it proved to be too big an advantage.

We finished off the minions and since Brian was in control, took no prisoners.  The pentagram was broken.  Fire enhancing runes were found on the barrels of oil.  (GM plot runes not player useful runes.)  We put them back on their cart with hopes of selling them.  (TerStegan has needs and every nickel counts.  It occurs to me we didn’t search and gather their loot.)  We did note that the priest and the “victim” were communicating in sign language, just like those two accountants that were causing trouble in town.  We were pretty sure it was them but we had no hard evidence.  We rolled into town, the evening before the day before the election.  We delivered our goods and returned the wagon.  We reported to Longsaddle.  There was no reward for the previous bandits, by the way.  We told him about the sabotage.  We figured we could rest up at the clubhouse and take on the crypt in the morning but TerStegan and Brisco wanted to continue investigating the accountants.  So, we spent the rest of the night on that.

It was pointed out that that much oil was not trivial to get.  We talked to Tamily and she agreed to buy it once Brian figures out what it is worth.  She suggested it must have come via the port so we talked to the harbormaster.  He gave us a surprisingly big list of townsfolk who had recently purchased a lot of oil.  A dead end or at least a multiple end.  (We need to get into the oil business.)  They then went to talk to Wren about the runes again.  She didn’t share anything new there but it turns out she sold the oil.  Evidently some very nice goblins came into town and wanted to buy a lot of oil.  She had to special order it for them.  She didn’t know where they went and knew of no connection between them and the accountants.  She did say they looked over her books and found ways she could increase her profits.  Brisco decided to stake out the accountant’s room for a couple hours.  At some point, a young lad showed up with a package and then left.  Brisco turned into a pest and snuck in to get a peek.  He even used a hero point on his blind stealth roll.  They unwrapped their DoorDash dinner, put out an extra setting and invited him to join them.  (Remember that perception-based initiative roll of 38?)  Brisco ran off.  And they finally concluded this was, in fact, a dead end.

Next time, we are going to the Menhemes crypt to retrieve the cloak.  It occurred to Oakwood that if the election goes against his father and the holy symbol transfers to Carmine, it becomes much harder to get.  So, we want to do this before the election.  Brian said it shouldn’t be a problem for Oakwood to get it.  No game on July 4^th so we’ll try again on the 11^th.  By the way, Brian says that the next level of the dungeon is the 5^th so we shouldn’t expect to level up again until after that level is done.  

Brian tried to kickstart the game in advance via email.  The bridge was assumed repaired. The wagon assumed to be unstuck and loaded with the stuff we managed to save from the collapsed keep.  The goods were assumed detected and identified.  We were assumed healed.  There were discussions via email about who would want what and what we would sell.  However, we still spent a bunch of time hashing through it all.  Periwinkle was given a share of the cash and since Brisco was taking her father’s Druid Crown, he decided to pay that out of his share.  (The pixie was a sorceress/champion and the crown was of no use to her or her dead father.)  The Staff of Fire was given to our Sorcerer.  The two +1 Ogre hooks were saved with their magic to be used for backup weapons for Oakwood and TerStegan.  Although at 4 bulk each, they were a bit of a pain to carry around.  There was much discussion about the Sapling Shield but ultimately the action economy of a tower shield was just too high so it went on the sell list.  However, we were still 2 days out of Absolom so all the selling and buying plans were a bit premature.  Finally, after several false starts, we got moving.

We had no issues the first day and camped near a sheep farm just off the road.  During the middle watch, TerStegan turned into WereStegan.  Evidently, he had been infected with Lycanthropy during the fight with the evil Druid, 3 months ago.  There was much consternation from the players about actions taken or assumed to be taken or evidence or whatever but given the glee in Brian’s voice while springing this on us, he wasn’t going to be talked out of it.  His trump card was that there wasn’t anyone high enough level in Otari that could cure it anyway.  Unfortunately, TerStegan is a big threat and a were-afide one even more so.  Plus, the fact that none of the casters had gotten their spells back since this was technically the same day.  Oakwood was on watch with him.  He took a shot, figuring we were in big trouble, and woke Clarisa.  WereStegan took a piece out of him with his Retribution Axe.  Thankfully, he got distracted by the easier prey horses and attacked one of them.  They managed to run off as everyone else started waking up.  Periwinkle was assigned to chase them down since she and her riding raptor were the only ones that could catch them. 

It looked like this would take the rest of the night but Brian sort of storyboarded it. For one, Paul was left out. WereStegan pushed past Oakwood and went after one of the sheep.  We gave chase but then he ran off into the night.  The horses were retrieved and the sheep ranchers showed up.  They would alert the watch.  Around breakfast, TerStegan came walking in with vague images of the event.  Some Recall Knowledge rolls were made.  It would take a 4^th level spell to cure him.  But we were still a day (and night) out of Absolom.  Whether the moon would still be full enough to cause a repeat was unknown.  A recent Lycanthrope is a bit random, evidently.  We traveled, camped and tied him up that night.  Whether that would have worked was debatable but thankfully he did not change.  We rolled into town.  Our first priority was getting him cured. The fairy said her temple could do it. However, people were too eager to sell and buy so we had to do that first. 

We sold the stuff and passed out the money. ~250? It was quite a haul.  Brian would allow common magic items to be bought without issue but anything uncommon would require a roll with the DC dictated by the level.  Oakwood bought an Aeon Stone, thanks to Xeelie’s roll.  TerStegan bought a cold iron rare longer range throwing axe with a roll.  He spent an extra 50% to get it the next day since we had to get back to Otari ASAP.  He and Xeelie bought some formulas so that she could magic it up when we had the time.  He also bought a magic helmet BTO found in the books for him.  Xeelie bought all kinds of stuff.  She spent so much, I don’t think she got that magic armor she needed.  Brisco and Clarisa were uninterested in the whole process.  Of course, they just got new items for “free” from the treasure.  They both bought portable holes at the end.  We also got TerStegan cured.  It cost 40 gold which everyone kicked in on.  We did not pick up whatever we were supposed to get for the use of the wagon yet.  We figured we’d do that last since we didn’t know how getting that book was going to go.  To the library.

Getting into the library was no problem.  The letter got us to the person in charge and then got us into the restricted section.  The book was full of scribblings that got more chaotic as the author got older and crazier.  The cover was made out of stone and the whole thing could be used as a shield.  The only suggestion on the table was Oakwood’s of creating a copy and swapping them the next day.  However, the amount of security measures we saw were giving us pause.  This is the biggest library in the biggest city on the continent.  This wasn’t going to go well.  Xeelie and TerStegan suggested we try to convince them of our need.  Not a surprise since they were loaded with Charisma skills.  That would be a skill challenge and everyone had to participate.  We decided to give it a go since we were at the end of the night.  We had extra hero points (metagaming), BTO wouldn’t be here the next two game (sort of metagaming) and if it failed, we’d have another week to come up with a new plan.  Thankfully, Brian was “generous” with the skills to use and everyone was able to justify using one of their best.  The DC was still a stiff 26 and we needed 5 successes with no failures.

TerStegan started with Performance, laying down the foundation of the heroic Roseguard and evil Belcora rising again.  That fact that Otari’s ghost told us that we needed that book particularly resonated with the library directory.  He had a +15 and succeeded.  Next was Brisco using Survival.  He told a tale of the impact a relit Gauntlight would have on the land.  And that it would impact Absolom soon enough.  And the fact that Belcora seemed to have it in for them.  I’m not sure Survival was the right skill for that but he made his roll.  Oakwood had the worst skill at +10 Medicine.  He concentrated on the undead rising from the graveyard, terrorizing the innocent folk.  And the more undead found in the Gauntlight in technically gruesome detail.  Again, probably not the right skill.  He barely missed the first roll, used a hero point and rolled a 17 (+10).  Clarisa went next, using Intimidation.  Basically, a repeat of the dire consequences described by the previous two.  She missed her roll, used a hero point and made it.  Bringing it home was Xeelie and her high Diplomacy.  She succeeded as well.  Our case was made and we were allowed to borrow the book.  (The fact that it was on loan from Otari in the first place should have helped us.)  Once the invisible security measures were disabled, it was tucked into Clarisa’s bag of holding and we walked out winners. 

We stopped there.  We need to pick up TerStegan’s axe and whatever cargo we were supposed to get.  The goal is to speed back to Otari, arriving the morning of the election.  No one is particularly interested in that (are we even old enough to vote?) Or probably more accurately, no one thinks we can have an impact.  However, it seems to be an anchor point event based on how often Brian has mentioned the date.  So, something will probably happen.  We still need that cloak from the crypt and to research that barrier spell.