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.

We started the game like most games, trying to figure out what to do.  Brian had provided “hints” in the form of a secret message from the captured fairy to TerStegan.  But even hints are subject to interpretations.  We got it mostly right.  With regard to the ritual, some arcana rolls lead us to believe that this was a Control Weather ritual enhanced by a blood sacrifice.  The Hag’s goal was to freeze the land.  But it should take a day to cast so we should have some hours.  There was also a warning that if it was disrupted, it might destroy the keep in a backlash.  So, we decided to “loot” the area before risking any confrontations.  That turned out to be much harder than we thought.  The Ogre’s loot sacks were immense and full of useless stuff.  A tree stump, a keg of booze, drums, etc.  They were too heavy to carry but we didn’t want to spend the time detecting and identifying.  So, we took our best guess and Oakwood started moving stuff out of the keep over to the road, hoping it would be safe there.  Since his was the lowest perception, he’d let the rest search and identify which they did. 

There were two valuable potions.  One was a fast healing that TerStegan took and one was an electric damage field that Xeelie took.  We also took their arms and armor, especially the short bows.  We also found a chest full of coins and shiny rocks in the goblin’s room.  Unfortunately, it weighed 50 bulk so we couldn’t move it without some major work.  Xeelie had her familiar toss rocks out while we continued to explore and fight.  All this took enough time for another round of Fresh Produce to top off everyone’s hit points.  The next room was the filthy Ogre room but there was nothing in there of value.  Prepared, we went to the west door.  We expected/hoped to be able to access the cells where Periwinkle’s friend Bell was imprisoned.  The hint implied to us that we could get past the ritual room to the cells (wrong) but we were hoping we didn’t have to try.  The next two rooms were the Hag’s and in much better shape.  The first had a large body and a hatchet.  Brisco chopped off its head to be sure.  There was also a cauldron of acid, likely for acid bombs.  But no bombs.  We searched for secret doors to the north and found none.

The next room was her bed chamber.  Xeelie pocketed some stuff from her dresser.  TerStegan and Oakwood examined the full plate standing in the corners.  They ended up taking them to our staging area as they were worth some coin.  Brisco searched for secret doors and found none.  Xeeile then examined the chest.  It turned out to be a Mimic as did the table that held another cauldron of acid.  That fight wasn’t too hard but a bit annoying.  Firstly, the obvious strategy was to knock the acid off the Mimic, preferably on it, before it could throw it.  However, TerStegan could not do it within the constraints of the rule system.  Since his weapon did not have a Disarm trait, he needed a free hand to attempt it.  And he didn’t want to let go of his 2-handed axe.  He could attempt to cleave the pot itself but being made out of steel, it would have a high hardness and hit points.  Ultimately, he chose to just hack at the Mimic although he did have the foresight to take a step north so that no one else got hit with the acid he knew was coming.  The other thing was that any weapon that hit one, got stuck with a tough Athletics check to get it free.  Xeelie was trained but not strong and soon enough, both her weapons were stuck.  As was she.  So, the meleers were impeded and losing actions.  But the casters peppered them with cantrips and it was over soon enough.  The chest Mimic was actually full of coins and we spent some time gathering them.

Next was the ritual room.  There was talk of using various potions but we weren’t sure what awaited us so no one decided to do so.  We opened the door.  There were two columns of bones near the door and since they were labeled “unharmed” we looked at them with suspicion.  On the other side was the Hag, casting her ritual.  Next to her was the floating undead Head of a dead Hag and a fairy in a cage.  That formed the coven of three needed.  We could see the entrance into a room to the west where we assumed Bell was being held.  Any hopes of being ignored while we rescued that potential ally were quickly dashed.  Let’s start with the bones.  Each round they manifested a skeleton of some fallen foe however they were very weak.  TerStegan took out the first one with one blow.  And each subsequent round, they got recreated a bit tougher than the last.  However, between Oakwood’s damage field and AOE cantrips like Arc of Lightning, the skeletons and the columns were taken out without much issue.  They were more of a distraction. 

Xeelie bravely ran through the room to get to the imprisoned Bell which turned out to be a riding raptor familiar to the fairy Periwinkle.  So much for freeing a powerful ally.  Unfortunately, the Head followed her in there.  Between using actions to open the cage and being pummeled by the Head, Xeelie was quickly on the ropes.  As a final irony, right before she could finally pick the lock, the raptor freed itself.  Oakwood ran over to engage the Head and Xeelie managed to run out of the room before she was knocked out.  But the main event was the Hag.  At first, she spent one action a round to maintain her ritual.  On her first round, she hit Brisco with a Baleful Polymorph (6^th level?).  He missed a stiff fort save and was turned into a bunny.  However, the next round, he spent all 3 actions to get a will save to shake it off.  And did.  TerStegan went after the Hag.  She was another supervillain, double our level.  They went at it and TerStegan even managed to free the fairy on a sweeping crit.  She flew into the room with Oakwood and the Head and reunited with her dinosaur.  Somewhere in here, Xeelie and her handful of hit points came back in and did her Recall Knowledge on the Hag.  And rolled well.  We learned, among other things, that she was vulnerable to fire which was helpful to know.  Oakwood left the Head and got near the Hag to put her in his fire damage field.

At this point, she started to panic.  She abandoned her ritual to cast a 3 action Cone of Cold.  (The room started to fill with ice as the aborted ritual started to backfire.)  She managed to hit everyone but Oakwood who was standing too close.  It was 49 points.  TerStegan used a hero point to avoid a crit failure and was barely up.  Brisco tried the same but still took the double damage.  He thought that was instant death, going down to -75 or something but it had to be double his full hit points in one blow so he simply went out.  Xeelie had no chance either way and went out as well.  Clarisa saved and was merely badly injured.  The fairy ran in and did a modest healing AOE on those she could get without healing the hag.  TerStegan engaged the Hag again but missed.  Oakwood got him flanking and hit once but the Hag was still going.  The other two gathered their weapons and stood up.  Clarisa fired some Magic Missiles from the hallway.  (She never had to come into the room.)  The Hag then tried to cast another spell but TerStegan got an opportunity attack and crit (thanks to the flanking) which interrupted it.  And when he went right after her, he crit again and took her out.  The Head was finished off in the next round.

The chronicler went to bed at this point.  I do not know how much further they went but regardless if it happened on this night or first thing next time, we’ll gather the loot from her, if any, and run for the door before the whole place turns to ice.  Hopefully we can grab some coins and Xeelie’s familiar along the way.  Then it’ll be repairing the bridge, filling the wagon with loot and continuing on our way to Absolum.  We’ve got a lot to sell.  We should do that first before becoming wanted criminals for stealing the magic book we need to save the world.  A hero’s work is never done.

Dan:

Combat started and we re-rolled initiative.  Brisc went first and stabbed a dagger into the bone door/gate so it couldn't close.  "Him" moved forward just behind the gate.  The hobgoblin archer shot at Clarissa and "She" moved next to the "Him" and threw a hatchet at TerStegan.  Xeeli jammed the other door so we were no longer in danger of being locked out.  Clarissa cast Grease on "Him" and "She", however they both made their saves.  Then TerStegan killed the Cockatrice with a crit.

Dave:

Our heroes continued their assault on the Hag’s Keep.  TerStegan had moved just inside and was facing the two Ogres.  The archers behind the arrow slits were further isolated by the open doors which made them tough to get at.  Clarisa had laid a line of Grease under the Ogres.  One slipped and lost a couple actions but they just stepped back and continued to use their reach.  But the heroes had to navigate around it for the rest of the fight.  Mostly it was whittled down the chickens and goblins and try to keep the front-line guys up from the Ogre onslaught.  But we weren’t doing much against them.  The archers were no joke but the Ogres were the real threat.  They had the usual high defenses and attacks.  So high, that when they hit, they almost always crit.  And an Ogre crit was 40+.  Plus, they got extra effects on their attacks like shove and trip.  Lastly, they had reach and opportunity attacks so with their size, they covered a lot of territory.  They were “on par” with the single foes we’ve been fighting but there were two of them plus supporting minions.  A tough fight, to be sure especially after expending resources on the bridge battle last time with no rest between.

After a couple of rounds, things were not looking good for our heroes.  The Ogres were mostly untouched and we were reeling.  The casters were mostly out of spells and Brisco had used his Battlefield Medicine on everyone.  Paul was rolling poorly and that wasn’t helping.  Oakwood showed up, did a bit of healing, turned on his damage field and moved up to get as many foes in it as possible.  At least he had a fresh pool of hit points.  Xeelie got crit and was forced to back out.  However, around here, Clarisa used a charge of her Necklace of Fireballs and did a bunch of damage.  The Him Ogre was finally at least injured.  We concentrated fire on Him and he finally fell with a hero point driven crit from TerStegan.  The goblins and chickens had been taken out along the way so there was only Her and one Hobgoblin left.  However, she was barely injured.  She racked up Oakwood.  She hit and moved him into the Grease.  When he stood up from being prone, she crit him with an opportunity attack and he was almost out.  Xeelie was out and Briscoe poured a healing potion down her.  But BTO was having tech issues and had to drop right afterwards.  But luckily, she started missing after that crit on Oakwood.  She missed 6 straight swings while everyone concentrated her.  She finally dropped and we survived.

At this point, it was after midnight so we talked about stopping there.  But we debated a bit.  Wade offered to pull us out of combat and start with the looting and healing but Paul wanted to get his last two rounds of his Bless spell.  He was for charging forward.  In addition, we could hear the Hag doing some sort of ritual so realistically, we couldn’t afford a 10-minute rest anyway.  We ended up taking one round to do some quick healing.  Briscoe did a battle-med on Oakwood and Oakwood passed out some Fresh Produce.  TerStegan ate his but Oakwood and Briscoe will have to use an action next round.  Clarisa gave Oakwood some temp hit points.  Xeelie was left out since she wasn’t on the map but at least she had that potion in her.  She’ll probably need some battle-med from Oakwood first thing next time.  Hit point wise, we’re in pretty good shape.  I think this is a “solve the bandit problem” side quest so the rewards should be good.  But can we defeat a Hag (and minions) with no spells and very little healing left? We’ll find out next time.

Brian/GM:

Back to the dining room.  We found a wine storage room.  There were 3 expensive bottles which we took.  One other bottle had another note from Zacchaeus Quagmire III.  Some hints about this level which we already knew and the next level which we won’t get to for a while.  Somehow there were 7 potions in there as well to be extracted and IDed later.  Next was another teleportation room and then a bath room.  Lastly was a garbage room with a chute down and a ghost.  Xeelie was shoved by flying rocks into the chute but she successfully Grabbed an Edge and didn’t fall down it.  Brisco attacked it.  It then turned invisible, moved and then did an AOE fear attack that got everyone.  Oakwood crit failed so Frightened 2 and fleeing.  Xeelie failed for Frightened 2 but not fleeing.  TerStegan, Frightened 1 but not fleeing.  Brisco saved and was immune.  And then it threw rocks at Xeelie and hit because she was Frightened 2.  She successfully climbed out, failed to Recall Knowledge and fled the room.  TerStegan charged in, was missed by its damage field and crit it for 30.  Oakwood fled but had to open the door to the stairs so ended still in the dining room.  Brisco cast Guidance on Oakwood and TerStegan and then hit it for 6. 

It went invisible, moved and did an AOE TK Storm, flinging debris at everyone.  It hit Xeele and Brisco for 2d12.  Xeelie used the Seek action to try to find it.  (A secret perception roll in a 30 area.)  She failed, moved back into the garbage room and closed the door.  TerStegan missed a Seek, stepped, and attacked the square he hoped it was in.  He missed the flat check and was done.  Oakwood fled again.  Dan showed up and rolled a middle initiative.  Brisco chose not to use an action to open the door and did a Seek in the dining room.  Brian let him Seek the bottom half of the room but he failed to find anything.  He then moved and did Seek in the top half of the room.  And didn’t find anything but was fairly confident there was nothing in there.  It became visible in the original room and did the Frighten thing again on Xeelie and TerStegan.  TerStegan saved and was immune for 10 minutes but Xeelie was Frightened 2 again but not fleeing.  And then it hit Xeelie twice.  Xeelie cast Life Boost on herself, identified it as a Poltergeist and then hit it for 6.  (It had resistances but no weaknesses.)  Clarisa moved, opened the door and raised her shield since she didn’t have two actions left to cast a spell.  TerStegan used a hero point to finish it off with a crit for 38.  Oakwood healed the party with lots of Fresh Produce impulses while Brisco missed two Treat Wounds on Xeelie. 

We then spent a bunch of time messing with the hatch which led to a drain that emptied at the dead Ottyugh we found before.  We found nothing but missed and made a lot of rolls.  Some prestidigitation clean up and we were off again.  We checked out the lounge and the torture room but we had already searched the area.  There were no doors found.  The blue aura was gone but when Brisco climbed onto the table, he still took a bunch of damage.  Xeelie examined the table again to see if she could disable it.  But this room is part of the central core of the Gauntlight and therefore indestructible.  We went around to the lake room.  And to the cave in the northwest corner.  That led to natural caverns that went on a long way.  Since the Werewolf was fleeing that way, we assume it gets to the surface eventually.  But we went back to the door at the landing.  That led to corridors and doors.  We went up, figuring it would lead back to the previous level.  First, we went past the door we saw in the Despair room.  In the corridor, Brisco found an invisible door.  I.e. concealed with an illusion. 

That led to a sitting room.  We saw Belcora and Voluk having a meeting in a nice clean room.  But they quickly disappeared and the room aged.  A vision of the past.  Another door led to a lounge with two divans.  On one, was Belcora reading a tome.  A perception check from TerStegan saw that it was The Whispering Reeds.  That was the book the big scary guy we avoided in the library took off a shelf.  And then she disappeared.  Next was a dining room.  And then a bedroom with a portal archway.  Plus, a horrible monster.  A Voidglutton.  Brisco went first and missed with a focus spell since its Reflex was +18.  Clarisa did a Vitality Lash and it crit failed its save.  But it took no damage from it.  Oakwood turned on his Thermal Nimbus and missed its 30 AC with a fire EB.  It went next, critting Xeelie with a web attack and then rolled a 1 on another attack.  When it stepped forward, it entered the fire aura.  But took no damage.  Immune to fire or magic or resistance? TerStegan cast Bless and then missed with a 28.  Xeelie crit on her Recall Knowledge.  It is immune to all spells except a short list of light-based ones. Pretty much Force Barrage and Battle Axe for us. 

Xeelie made a DC 26 acrobatics to get unstuck and threw her star knife.  And missed.  Brisco cast Splash on TerStegan to try to keep him up.  He then missed with his Trident.  Clarisa cast a full load of Force Barrage on it.  35 points and it was injured.  Oakwood cast his Timber Sentinel and backed up.  It cast Darkness in the middle of us but Xeelie’s lantern (level 3) overpowered some of it.  That was a free action.  It attacked TerStagen and crit, of course.  48 points of damage but the tree took 30 of it.  But that came with a free Fear attack.  That was a crit fail but only a Frighten 1 on a brave fighter.  Its next action, it hit again for 23.  It then did a concentration power but Xeelie interrupted it with a natural 20.  And did 25 points plus bleeding damage.  TerStegan turned on his stance, failed in a Feint and missed.  Xeelie cast Life Boost on TerStegan and then moved around to flank it.  And hit for 17.  Unfortunately, she moved her light, leaving Clarisa and Oakwood in the dark.  Brisco did Battle Medicine on TerStegan and gave him 25.  He then missed, used a hero point and missed again.  Clarisa stepped forward to get into the light and then used a 1^st level Barrage.  It did 10 and took it out. 

There was one last door that led to a chamber in the center.  There were 3 creatures webbed to the wall.  TerStegan went in and cut them down.  As they fell, they swiftly decayed.  There was an unusual composite longbow, prayer beads and an elixir.  It was once a trophy room(?), long since emptied and abandoned.  Probably as they dug down.  Xeelie identified the potions.  4 bottled sunlight, 1 mist form elixir and a stone body mutagen.  The longbow was +1 striking composite longbow.  If we had an archer, he’d be very happy.  Although he’d probably would have already built one.  We’ll sell it for parts.  The Prayer Beads required a divine caster but Clarisa’s Oracle archetype was good enough.  +1 hit point for her when she casts a divine spell.  And the ability to cast Heal and Bless, once a day.  Mist form is 20% miss chance for 3 rounds.  TerStegan took that.  The stone one gets you 5 points of damage resistance but you lose 10 feet of movement and take -2 on Reflex saves.  Sell it.  We spread out the sunlight as they are undead bombs.  This level was pretty much done.  We will start at our house next time.  Either going to Absolom, breaking into the crypt to get the cloak or tackling various side tasks.          

Things got more complicated since last time.  We still had 3 wisps that half of us could not affect and an undead hand.  Plus, the Witch and her menacing puppy familiar was creeping towards us.  And now the Laughing Man had appeared on a throne at the north end of the chamber.  He started to give a running commentary on our struggles.  The fact that Oakwood was confused, he thought this was a significant event.  Especially since “more were coming”.  Out of an alcove we had innocently walked past, came an undead Wight sort of thing.  Its first action was to do a scary wail.  It was a tough Will save for all against fear.  Most failed and took -1 on most everything.  We kept swinging however when confused Oakwood went, he attacked the Witch.  She put up an earthen barrier and took no damage.  And then two misses however it got her involved.  She appeared to be another one of these “way too powerful, don’t mess with them” NPC/monsters.  She unleashed a Poison Cloud.  The save was big and so was the damage.  Plus, low visibility.  However, because Clarisa was already near death from the Wight, she went out.  And since the spell had the Death trait, she was dead.  Brian declared retroactive play.  The Witch was smart enough to know that the attack on her was probably a mistake and wouldn’t have wanted to kill anyone over it.  She, instead, hit Oakwood with a spell that did damage, moved him towards her like a puppet and put him on his knees.  A more fitting display of her power over us.

Another Wight appeared but it was the confusing wisps that were the real problem.  Near death Clarisa got confused next and she randomly attacked the puppy.  She elected to punch it but with an action to stand and a double move to get there, she didn’t actually get to attack.  In reaction, the puppy grew to large size and the Witch stole her shadow.  (Enfeebled 1?)  Oakwood ran after her and hit her with a heal.  Late arriving Brisco used his last AOE heal to heal multiple characters and damage the undead Wights.  As is often the case, this turned the tide and soon enough the last Wisp faded away.  The Laughing man commanded the Witch to come with him and they both teleported away.  Xeeile and Brisco and her magic lantern started searching.  Oakwood did the Ocean’s Balm on TerStegan and Xeelie.  However, the room was still disturbing.  Most missed a Fear save and those minuses would not go away until we got out of there.  We decided to head for home to recharge the Druid’s healing spells.  We grabbed the body of the Werewolf Druid and started the usual game of trying to find our way back out by the most direct path.

However, this time we had an encounter along the way.  In the Morlock’s altar room, we came upon a Swarm of Bone Flies feasting on a body.  Initiative.  It had a 33.  Yes, another superpowered foe, designed to challenge the whole group by itself.  Its AC and Saves were super high.  In one round, it nearly took out Xeeile with 3 attacks.  She managed to move forward, out of the room.  (Once again, we were fighting in tight quarters with doorway bottlenecks.)  Being a Swarm, it was resistant to most of our attacks.  The second round, it nearly took out 3 more of us.  Basically, when it attacked, it attacked everyone in its area (4 squares).  We spread out as we could.  We got smarter about what would affect it.  AOEs were good but its Reflex saves were monstrous.  It was less resistant to bludgeoning although TerStegan blew through that resistance.  Brisco did Battlefield Medicine on TerStegan and himself and Oakwood did it on himself so that hopefully they could survive the next round.  Clarisa went last.  She had an AOE cone on a Fort save but she’d hit Brisco and Oakwood as well.  The damage was low but the hope was that the flies would take double so she took the shot.  And took it out.  A 3-round fight of panic, TPK fears and victory.

We left.  Everyone that was hit by the flies was assumed to have been diseased.  That was everyone but Clarisa.  Brian sent us to our cabin and rather grind our way through the Treat Disease rules, assumed we all got better after 3-4 days.  We sold some stuff and distributed some stuff.  Brisco’s Returning Trident was upgraded with a striking rune.  The body was returned to the general store owner along with his wife’s necklace.  That got us some gold and discounts at his store.  Next time, I guess we’ll try to navigate the acquisition of the town artifacts Otari said we needed to move down a level.  Although, there were still unexplored areas of the current level so maybe we should wait until the next trip.

We started with a conversation with Otari’s ghost.  Several people had various things to say but I think it can be summarized into 3 primary areas.  What happened to him.  The Roseguard fought Belcora 500 years ago.  Their wizard had some up with a spell to prevent her from fleeing down into the lower levels.  Most of the fight occurred on the second story which is all but gone.  He fell into the lower levels when the stairs collapsed.  He wandered, looking for an exit.  He passed through a lot of the challenges we had faced however he hadn’t gone below where we already were.  He went through the library, killed the Minotaur whose bones we saw and eventually fell to the Otyugh whose body we had found.  He/we assumed the fight continued and she fell at that pool of blood at the base of the tower.

Second, what do we have to do.  There is a barrier at this level that prevents going any lower.  He thinks she turned their wizard’s barrier against them.  She used “something precious” from each Roseguard member to power the ritual.  He thought that we’d need to retrieve those items, find the ritual and reverse it to get passed.  His item is his Skeleton key, found with his body.  We also need the Rajani sword, currently under lock and key by the adults in town.  And linked to Amicia.  To our surprise, the holy symbol in the procession of Oakwood’s father was not an item.  Otari thought her cloak would be more precious to her.  We assume she was buried with it so it would be in her sealed tomb under the town of Otari.  And we need that holy symbol to open it so we still have to get it from the adults.  Lastly is the wizard’s book which hopefully has the ritual.  We had no idea where that might be.  If it’s amongst all the books we’ve seen in this place, that’s quite a haystack.  However, when asked, Otari thought it might be elsewhere.  He “suggested” (hint hint) we talk to the town wizard.  Anyhow, that’s quite a list of difficult problems to solve.  The big question will be weather we try to convince the adults on what is going on or assume they’ll shut us down again and “steal” the stuff we need to save the world. 

Lastly, what can we do for him.  Our ghost experts think that he is tied to this cave, the place of his death.  He thought he could not move on because he is somehow tied to the Gauntlight.  Our working theory is if we can stop Belcora (or her ghost or her minions) he’d be free.  Xeelie asked what he’d like done with his bones.  He wanted to be reunited with the cleric in the tomb under the town.  Apart in death but together again in the afterlife.  We gathered his bones so we could put them in the tomb when we break it open.  In addition to his Skeleton Key, he pointed us to his +1 studded leather armor (which was given to Brisco) and Venom Dagger (which will be sold).  He told us where the ritual and barrier were.  And asked that we keep him updated.  It’s been kind of boring down here after 500 years.  At least the Will O Wisp won’t be bothering him anymore.  Eventually, we managed to pry the knowledge thirsty away and continued with our explorations.  Xeelie took lots of notes.

We followed one river and discovered that it led to the room with the Gibbering Mouther we had recently killed.  The next cave led to a vast hallway.  To the south, we could see the scintillating barrier.  To the north, a hexagonal room.  However, there was some lady and her puppy at the barrier so we headed that way.  She claimed to be heading to the gladiatorial matches, promised to be down here somewhere.  Some players had vague memories of talking to someone about them long ago.  She didn’t seem to be a ghost and was up on current events in Otari.  She asked who we were voting for which opened the discussion on whether we could vote.  What is the voting age and what was our age? She had two different colored eyes that evidently identified her as a Hag or hag related.  Her puppy gave people the “powerful evil demon” vibes.  There were continued discussions while Xeelie tried to use all of her knowledges but other characters started wandering off.  Since this hag/witch wasn’t doing anything, we decided to ignore her and head north.  After all, we’re not murder hobos.

To the north was a large room with a raised platform in the middle.  On that was a huge stone with seven gashes across it where energy was pulsating out.  There were 2-3 doors exiting.  However, before we could do anything, 4 undead hands crawled out followed by 4 Lesser Wisps.  As per normal, people demanded to know their strengths and weaknesses since we had fought them before.  And were pointed at the Bestiary list.  And as per normal, the information there was lacking.  But we already knew what there was to know.  The Wisps were immune to all magic and had no weaknesses.  And the hands were undead.  With a full load of players and 8 monsters, the initiative order was packed.  Everyone did their normal stuff.  TerStegan waited for his initiative to come up so he could start slaughtering them.  Brisco complained about not having any healing spells left and not having any other spells that were useful.  Xeelie did her Find Weakness class powers.  Clarisa fired a cantrip at two hands and last going Oakwood finished them off with vitality energy blasts.

After a round and a half, 3 hands were out and 1 wisp.  Everyone saved against the Wisp’s sparkles in round one although TerStegan used a hero point.  Clarisa critically saved so she was immune for 24 hours.  However round two, Oakwood missed his save and became Confused.  And is poised to start attacking random friends.  Meanwhile, that witch and her evil puppy had moved up.  Were they going to help or attack? However, at that this point, Brian had a potential emergency and had to drop off.  It turned out to not be an emergency but by then, it was too late to get back going.  Next game is next week to accommodate BTO’s schedule where we’ll pick up in mid round.

We started with more character changes.  Wade had loaded the latest version of Brisco and updated his token accordingly.  However, it didn’t seem like Dave had 100% decided that was the way he wanted to go.  But after a month of discussion and indecision, Wade decided.  So, he’s still a Druid but made Storm his primary and Leaf his secondary and dropped Wild.  Storm’s focus spell is a good ranged damage spell.  And while it could be debated how comparable the combat wild shapes are, the bottom line was that Dave had only used it once in 5 levels.  And with a side of Medic.  This makes him more of a caster and a better Battlefield Medicine healer.  Wade also gave him a +1 returning trident for his troubles.  Dave Green made a few changes as well.  He dumped Darkvision since he’s not going to be sneaking out front anymore and took Shield Block and that Reenforced shield we earned for saving that dwarf.  That qualified him for the Bastion dedication which he took at 4^th.  That net effect was that it made him tougher. Good now that DS stayed a caster and didn’t change to Champion as had been discussed.  Once DG updated his character and DS updated his spells, we were ready to go.

First up was the last ghost on level 3.  The book repairer.  The previous ghost, we tried to talk into “moving on” but ended up fighting.  We assumed the same would be true with this one.  Wade pointed out that by merely defeating a ghost in combat, it would eventually return.  So, we debated whether to even try but decided to give it a shot.  She was still busy going through the motions of repairing the piles of books in her room.  We tried to talk to her and make Recall Knowledge rolls but got nowhere.  I think Paul suggested that if we removed the damaged books, she’d think she was done.  And maybe she could rest.  We moved them out, politely, however once gone she stayed at her workbench waiting for more.  We then realized she was linked to her tools.  We moved them out, politely, and she finally moved on.  Her long dead body had a Crafter’s Eyepiece (+1 on crafting rolls, repair hit points equal to 10+10 per skill rank on a success and 15s on a critical success), a key and a gold paperweight.  We moved on as well.

That last hostile being on this level was the Wood Golem guarding Belcora’s private library.  Last time, we couldn’t touch it and only survived because we got out of the room.  But TerStegan was confident (and eager for riches) this time.  DG suggested we use its (hoped) inability to leave its room and pepper it from range.  However, that would leave TerStegan mostly idle so he decided to do it his way.  Basically, let him go toe to toe while the rest tried to keep him up.  Once again, after the first round, it was untouched and we were battered.  It didn’t help that TerStegan went last.  Oakwood and Brisco used half their actions trying to keep him up.  As usual, he was doing the lion’s share of the hitting and damage.  The rest were either missing, failing or bouncing off its resistances.  Its retribution reaction attacks were taking a toll on us but the key was TerStegan who never went down.  A couple of highlights.  TerStegan got good use out of his new Bless spell, getting hits from that +1.  Oakwood’s Protector Tree took 30 points of damage once there was a gap for him to place it.  And Brisco did a ton of healing with his spells and improved Battlefield Medicine.  As is usually the case with a 4 on 1 battle, it was dire for 3 rounds and then over.  The room had 4 bulk of old history books on Absolm worth a projected 20 gps.  On to the 4^th level.

We had previously explored two areas down there.  The dining room and torture chamber which had several unexplored doors.  Or the Mad Ranger(?) and his pet wolf that Otari’s ghost had led us past.  We elected to follow Otari although I’m not sure that spirit has our best interests at heart.  We decided to treat the Ranger as a haunt and try to figure out what he wanted.  Our Druid talked to him but rolled poorly.  He did manage to get him to stop growling and start talking.  But it was a “None Shall Pass” dead end. We started to talk about bribing him or just going past him when initiative was rolled.  As always, the monster went first, Brisco next and TerStegan last.  It cast a 4d12 Lightning Bolt at everyone but Clarisa.  (Once again, we were fighting in a 5-foot hallway, stacked up against each other.)  So, it was a Druid.  DS was insistent that this should have given him an advantage in the previous negotiations, Druid to Druid, but Wade was unmoved by his repeated pleas.

The wolf moved up to block the way and we attacked.  In general, both sides rolled poorly.  Oakwood did roll two 20s in the same round and took out the wolf.  But the Druid went next and healed it back up.  But then TerStegan took it down again.  At this point, the Druid cast Grease in our hallway and retreated.  TerStegan and Oakwood saved but Brisco fell.  TerStegan was on its edge so he could move freely and chased after him.  The rest faced a DC26 Reflex save for each square moved or taking 5-foot steps without the risk.  They did that but it delayed them a round.  The Druid then cast a Wall of Thorns which, in addition to causing damage and difficult terrain for those walking through it, gave him cover from most of us.  But it was just another delay tactic.  TerStegan mostly exchanged misses with him while the rest of us tried to get into the fight.  When the Druid was almost out, he jumped into the lake below the platform we were fighting on.  TerStegan jumped in after him.  And missed.  Oakwood and Clarisa manged to get a ranged shot but missed as well.  (His AC and Defenses and damage reduction were the usual big numbers for a single foe.)  

At this point it was after 1:30AM so the chronicler went to bed. I assume he was finished off unless he turned into a fish and swam away.  Or maybe they stopped to start again next time. Underwater combat was another untapped section of rules that will probably take time to dig into.  Unless Wade storyboarded his defeat, they probably stopped.  There’s one door in there but Otari’s ghost went over the lake and into a cavern/corridor so maybe we head that way. 

BTO was in Hawaii and DG was late due to Skype issues.  When he did get on, he asked where we were at with regard to the Free Archetype offer that Brian had emailed the week before.  It had not come up.  Dan hadn’t had a chance to do enough research.  Dave wasn’t even sure what to do with his Druid let alone another archetype.  And Paul hadn’t checked his email all week.  Once it was explained to him, he was 100% on board.  This would allow him to take his first Bard feat at 4^th instead of 10^th (due to his need to finish off his Marshal dedication.).  He could achieve the Fighter(Marshal)/Bard of his dreams.  DG took Kineticist with the Wood element to give him some capabilities he wouldn’t get from Monk without using focus points.  So those two updated their characters in Foundry. 

A couple of rule clarifications.  Because there was no mention in the book to the contrary, you had to meet the preqs to take the free archetype.  For most, that’s a +2 in the prime stat.  There was mention of waiving them but only if players were being “forced” to take a particular archetype which we are not.  However, it was also ruled that the free archetype exists in parallel to your original character so the “two feats in an archetype before you can start a new archetype” did not apply.  They still apply to your base character progression.  Paul wanted to know if he could use one of his fighter feats to take an additional bard feat at 8^th.  Brian ruled against that for now.  They are on separate tracks so you can’t use class feats for the free archetype and vice versa. It is our assumption that BTO will stick with Rogue/Witch, advancing in both now.  Lastly, pathfinder builder has an option to include the free archetypes but only if you bought the paid version for $5.99.  Dan did so and Paul was considering it.  In theory, if you can do something there, it was “legal.”  However, Foundry isn’t that smart.  It pretty much lets you do what you want.  So, the legality of some of these rule nuisances depend on what program you have access to.

Back to the game.  After defeating the Gibbering Mouther, they explored the cave and found a passageway south.  After following it a bit, they concluded it was the same passageway (and the same Gibbering Mouther) we had run into under Otari.  We tried to get going when it was realized some were still down hit points.  DG successfully argued that during that hour of exploration mode, we could have healed up.  So, we were ready to go.  Late start.  We went back to the library to find most of it burnt.  All those books.  The room with the giant idol was also burned away.  We did find sand all over the place.  If you remember, we found a barrel of sand for fire fighting in one of the small rooms.  But that meant someone was using it.  Probably Augrael again.  But the fire damage ended about there.  We headed for the Dwarf we failed to save last time.  The reading Fey had moved one room over but was still occupied.  He seemed extra annoyed by our presence but did nothing.  We continued.  Luckily Oakwood remembered the trapped door and used his Mage Hand to avoid it.  Through a couple of secret doors and we were back to the Will O Wisp room.

The Dwarf from town was still alive but in dire shape.  Still chained to the table, groaning for help.  The WoW was nowhere to be seen and there was no blue light.  TerStegan took a crack at the locks.  With a +1 from Oakwood’s Aid, he rolled a 20 for a crit success.  That opened two locks.  The next lock, they failed.  His picks had one failure left in them.  They succeeded on the next two and he was freed.  Meanwhile, Brisco was doing a medical assessment.  The guy was in bad shape.  Evidently, he had been captured by a blue skin bald woman a year ago and brought down here for torture. (For the rest of the night, Brisco asked if any new person we met was blue.)  Brisco did a Treat Wounds and used a Healing Wand charge to get him from almost dead to badly wounded.  He also had all kinds of conditions on him.  We decided we had to get him back to town.  We made it back to the cart without issue, although it was slow going with him, and headed back to Otari.

Before we got to the turn off for the clubhouse, we ran into our rival teen gang including Oakwood’s sister and TerStegan’s sort of girlfriend, Amicia Rajani.  Brisco managed to dart into the woods but with the cart and the dwarf, the rest just met them.  They claimed to be going camping but they were acting suspiciously.  Amicia, in particular.  They were equipped appropriately but they could also be heading to the Gauntlight.  We advised them not to go but they would not be dissuaded.  The goblin examined the wounds and bandages of the dwarf and made some adjustments.  We think they were valid.  Oakwood asked his sister how she was feeling, outside earshot of the rest.  She said better but was evasive, looking toward Amicia.  Eventually, we passed on by, although the goblin decided to stay with the wounded back to town.  Brisco lingered in the woods, hoping to overhear some clue after the rest of us left but got nothing.  He tried to follow them but missed his Stealth roll.  He caught up.  He sent his familiar to the cabin, in case they did something there, as the rest of us headed to town.  At a mile distance, he could sense the emotional state of Saps.  It was concerned/panicked.  We decided to send the fastest, Oakwood, to the cabin as the rest pressed on.

Oakwood ran into Saps before he got there.  He had a note from the high priestess addressed to the heroes of Otari.  Evidently someone had stolen the ceremonial sword of Rosegaurd Rajani and she needed our help solving the mystery.  She had given the note to some girls heading towards the Gauntlight and asked them to drop it off.  Not sure why they didn’t mention it but it was pretty obvious they were hiding something.  It said that Carmen Rajani is being accused since he’s been trying to gain procession of his family’s heirloom for years.  The guards thought it would have taken an expert thief and/or magic user to get it.  Oakwood scooped up Saps and headed to town.  When he ran into the goblin, he begged her to stop his sister from going to the Gauntlight.  He made a decent roll and the goblin decided to go to his family bakery and get some fermented muffins before going.  (Oakwood’s mother had warned him to never eat those muffins.)  Meanwhile the rest made it to the dwarf’s family bar.  His mother was most grateful.  She gave us a strong metal shield with her family crest on it.  Unfortunately, no one would use it.  It’ll be unfortunate when it shows up in the local pawn shop.  (100 gp)  The high priestess was sent for and did some stuff for the dwarf.  He needs sleep more than anything else.  (And maybe some PTSD counseling.)    And then briefed the group on the theft.  The same info from the note.

We all met at the Dawn Library and did our best CSI.  At first glance, the glass case was busted and the sword gone.  We puzzled as to why the guards thought magic was needed for a smash and grab.  But on closer examination, the glass pane was “phased” out of the case without disturbing the mounting brackets and then broken.  Brisco suggested using our Mending cantrip scroll to put the glass back together to get some clues however Clarisa wanted to transcribe it first.  That would take time and we sort of moved on.  Brisco changed into a dog, hoping his nose would learn something.  He made a roll but there were just too many people through here for that to have any chance.  Everyone was assuming Mr. Rajani took it, however Oakwood suggested (seconds before Brisco) that it might have been the daughter.  If she was going into the dungeon (why, we don’t know) maybe she thought she needed the sword. 

He headed to Longsaddle and found him talking to an irate Mr. Rajani.  He resented the accusation and did not consent to his shop and home being searched.  When he spotted Xeelie, he was eager to talk to her.  (Too bad Brian wasn’t there.)  We were all invited in.  His daughter was missing and wanted Xeelie’s help finding her.  We weren’t aware of any relationship between her and the Rajani family but we weren’t Xeelie either.  We searched her room.  We found three things.  We found letters, tied in a bundle.  They were mostly addressed to TerStegan with one to Oakwood. But obviously never sent.  We decided not to invade her privacy by reading them.  We found that one pane of her window had been removed and broken much like the library.  It was too small to use as an escape.  The working theory is that it was practice for the spell used there.  We did not recall her having any magical training.  Just a blacksmith/craftperson.  Lastly, we found Xeeile’s doll familiar Lucy.  However, Xeelie had Lucy so this was a duplicate.  Our theory was that she was dabbling in pact magic like Xeelie to get the spells needed.  Maybe coerced by a higher power?

We felt time was of the essence.  We told the father we had some ideas and were acting on them ASAP.  We told Longsaddle a bit more so that he could take the heat off the father.  We left the cart at the bar, figuring it would slow us down, and headed to the Gauntlight.  We tried some tracking but the path was too worn.  We arrived just as darkness fell.  At which point, Brian shared one more piece of information.  Near here, on the water is an old smugglers hideout.  The kids from town have been known to camp/party there from time to time.  With magic muffins? So, we decided to head that way.  As we approached, we could see the light of a fire.  Teens, smugglers, demons? And stopped there.  So, no combat but maybe a nice break from endless dungeon door roulette of death.