A zip of character sheets can be found here

2016/09/28

Gudrun carried an unconscious Quest and Jon to the Dragon’s Nest tavern to rest and recover.
Felt terrible the following morning, still feeling rough from the previous night.
Hired some horses from stable, Gudrun says that she will most likely be heading back to the red plume.
Tracked to where a skirmish seems to have happened and camped in cavern overnight, found tracks of what could be the other half of the party.
Continued tracking North East to foot of the mountains, saw party in distance making their way up the mountain.
Katar, Lil’J, and Margaret came onto plateau near top of the mountain, sheer drop to side of it. Large boulder with a skull carved into it, hole in eye, ears, nostrils, and large one for mouth.
Genghis smelled food, trying to get to nest above boulder.
Lil’J put seeing stone into eye socket and seemed to activate some kind of mechanism.
Heard screeching coming up from below, attacked by harpy!
Quest and Jon sprinted up the mountain in order to try and catch up.
Harpy charmed Margaret and Lil’J with its song, felt compelled to walk towards it – towards edge of cliff!
Katar sunk some shots into it, before tying Margaret up with rope to stop her from falling.
Lil’J regained his senses and unleashed a scorching ray. Katar placed an arrow in a crevice to try and sustain the weight of the rope and Margaret. Marget walked off and was dangling 400ft looking down the cliff face!
The Harpy picked up Lil’J before being covered in acid by him, only just keeping his footing on the edge before the Harpy careered down the cliff, dead.
Margaret hoisted back up by Jon and Katar as the others arrived.
Puzzled over boulder before remembering the letter – ‘..remember to enter is threefold. Of voice, of stone, and of blood…’
Whispered in the ear, ‘let us in’, when asked who goes there, replied ‘no one’. Another mechanism turned!
Took turns trying to offer blood to the mouth, inside was a spike protruding up. Lil’J ended up impaling his hand on it, opening the final mechanism. Left with stigmata on palm. Boulder rolled aside!
Continued down a narrow passageway. Strange shimmering purple ‘anti-life’ barrier blocked our ability to advance. Flames in braziers burning, with openings behind. Jon and Lil’J reached behind it to activate the lever burning their arms but bringing down the barrier.
Pool of liquid in front, Katar dived into it, led to another door the other side. Rest of the party followed.
Opened the door. Inside, saw rows upon rows of pews with bodies lying slumped on them. A purple barrier was halfway along the large hallway in front. Beyond it, a pool, similar to those seen in other temples with a blackened liquid in it. At the far end, an altar. Is this the temple of the harpy?

2016/09/21

Camped for evening huddling around fire for warmth.

Heard sound of wolves in distance, jiggalump scouted out and found a pack of ~8 but with two larger than rest apparently fighting to establish dominance.

Pack went south and the split into two smaller groups, one approached.

Margaret woke group up to prepare to fight them off. Katar attempted to reason with them but wasn't backing down.

4 wolves attacked, alpha targeted.

Well timed divine smite from Margaret, sharpshooter shot from Katar, and a final scorching ray from Lil'J finished it off.

Killed off alpha and the final two backed away.

Climbed a nearby tree to gain height advantage and avoid any further encounters after having to calm Genghis first.

Looked through seeing stone and saw Gudrun, Jon, and Quest asleep in makeshift bunk beds, seem fine.

Tracked northwards, found area near obsidian mine where some skirmish seems to have happened. Found a nearby cave with butchered horse, rags, and bloodied white cloak. Continued further north coming across jagged mountains. Made camp in shallow cavern for evening.

Lil'J had further nightmare.

Woke feeling strangely warm, comforted and happy. Remembered childhood memories and positive thoughts from our lives.

Lost the trail in rain, jiggalump found horse tied to tree but something seemed to latch onto jiggalumps back and destroy it.

Found the horse and set it loose.

lil'J conjured a rabbit who found further trail leading up mountainside. Seems well trodden with paths leading both up and down.

Margaret spotted something circling around and landing over the crest of one of the peaks.

Followed the path up. In distance, saw two creatures come together, one plummet down, the other land, and soon after, the second one descend vertically down as well.

Continued up the mountainside, nearly cresting the peak...

2016/09/14

- We were taken to the prisoners and tried to come up with a way to interrogate them with very little time to discuss

- Margaret asked the Fade agent questions and the rest of us as well

- Said the "pale one" (the Fade agent who killed himself in the pub at the start of the campaign) gave him a tattoo that was used to communicate; was offered money and power, he was desperate; they somehow knew his secrets and blackmailed him. Tortured him as well until he "learned to love them". Doesn't even remember where home is. Said that the amulets are a "key" to somewhere. Offered him an amulet, he said he would show us how it works. He drew something on the floor and then turned to mist. 

- Gudrun booked it and Katar as well. The agent eventually cornered himself against the entrance to the audience chamber. The guy managed to somehow cast a soul sucking spell at the prince once he broke through the door, we thought he might lead us somewhere but instead he seems to be assassinating the prince... yay

- Jon managed to kill the Fade agent before he could finish the job. 

- Had to deal with a very livid bodyguard, Jon failed to persuade them. A couple others chimed in without making it sound like we gave them the means to escape though Jon told them the truth in the end, persuasively! They took the prisoners out for immediate execution.

- Lil J went to see Blane while the rest of us watched the execution. Blane said how the Fade had taken Alistair. Lil J asked if there was a better way than the Heartstone for finding Alistair with one of his belongings, but he didn't seem to know. Gave us a harpy feather in case it would help us find the Temple of the Harpy, though he'd never heard of such a Temple. 

- Margaret, Jon and Lil J went to pay their respects at the Pellor temple, some priests took them to Alistair's room, investigated it. Looked like they'd been looking for something, checking small drawers or for secret compartments. The party couldn't find any when they checked. 

- Lil J took something of Alistair's so we can try scrying for him. 

- Katar managed to find a dog in the forest and start taming him!

- Decided to split the party, one group would go to Stillbend and do some scrying and the other would track the footprints from the Temple of Pellor; Quest, Gudrun and Jon would go to Stillbend and the rest on the tracking party. 

- Gengis the dog led the tracking party to a cavern, courtesy of Alistair's sock! Found bonfire remains in it and remnants of a camp. Wasn't much there. Footprints continued north and some hoof prints as well. Katar perceived they were there a day and a half ago. Lost the tracks, they scattered at the Red Plume camp. Katar investigated, some tracks headed to the mountains and others headed into wilderness. Katar took the route to the wilderness and followed until 4:00am or so! Made camp. 

- Jon and co found a charter boat to take them to Stillbend. Went to the tower and tried to use the Heartstone but unsurprisingly it had security, Quest got his brain fried, survived though! Decided to go and find Jostyll. But didn't know where to look! One of the guys at the pub said she was at the pub this morning. No idea where she is now. Got the gist that she was at the Temple of Ioun. Went to her tower with her. She found a crack in the Heartstone and said she wasn't sure it would even work. Needed to see someone about it. Quest persuaded her of the urgency. Had her scry with the amulet. A beacon appeared and pointed northeast. And then another crack formed in the stone and we all got psychic damage. 

- Jostyll livid when she inevitably found out that we broke her stone yay! We made some reparations with gold and apologised, she stormed off said we were free to try it again if we must with the harpy feather, Jon decided that we had to try

- The beacon pointed northeast again so that was good. But then the psychic blast hit us again and Jon and Quest were incapacitated. 

- Gudrun managed to stabilise Quest but Jon was in bad shape, she just barely managed to stop him from dying. 

2016/09/07

- Remembered that heart stone only points in a cardinal direction so the blood scrying idea is not so great

- Investigated ankh symbol jars before we slept last time and didn't discover anything, there were other organs in them but nothing stolen

- Quest and Lil J scared by nightmares; Quest wanted to bury the amulets theorising they were the cause. Figured out that might be dangerous, Jon offered to take them so handed them all over!

- Scouting we saw some people headed in our direction and other movements

- Headed off towards Stillbend

- Encountered a crashed cart by the side of the road with a father and daughter, father in the back with the same disease that Quest and Lil J caught from the mummy; he travelled from Arlyon, camped north of Arlyon. Jon was able to heal the father.

- Gave them one of our seeing stones as they're heading to Pyra and the Wintercrest Festival, told them to show a red cross  through it if there's trouble, Pip and Kurst

- Headed on to Stillbend, very big crowd gathered, revelry, Wintercrest happening here too

- Headed to Jostyll's tower and found it unoccupied. Her calendar said she was out visiting Shakey etc and the docks so we split up

- Saw a huge galley flying the flag for the god Zehir (poison and assassins!) down at the docks

- Shakey offered some job getting an item from the woman on the galley, poison, obvious 

- Decided to head to the temple and saw Lala the head of Ioun, the robots were still there, modrons, there's a larger one there this time, triangular one, directing them

- Lala pointed us to the library and found Jostyll there, told her about the heart of an ancient being and showed her the blood to use, she thought it might work, headed off with her

- Quest spoke with a modron, said it was gathering the wild magic for Primus to help against "him", "it", some enemy?

- Jostyll experimented with the blood on her heart stone. Sort of pointed us towards the east, southeast, and the light sort of moved, heading northern direction, moving fairly fast, possibly

- Tried the amulet that Alistair blessed on the heart stone but it just pointed to Jon, couldn't locate Alistair with it

- Gave up and went to have a drink at the pub we went past earlier! Dragon's Nest

- Jon won the drinking competition, possibly gained some respect in Shakey's eyes!

- Quest went to the Bardic Guild and told a story for his room, all seemed fine there. 

- Quest looked in the seeing stone before bed and saw smoke coming from the white temple and clerics milling about, looks like it was attacked, not many white clerics around

- Jon and Lil J had some horrific dreams and Quest was fine, it's the amulets!

- Saw gallows being set up in Pyra. We thought we might head there next as we don't seem to have other leads that we know how to follow!

- Found a ship to take us there no problems! 

- Headed down to the temple district and Jon spoke to them. Men came in the night and desecrated the place, killed clerics. 

- Apparently gallows set up for Fade agents that we stopped before

- Went to palace to ask to talk to the agents before they're executed. 

- Katar scouted outside the city to find any possible forced entry or something. Saw some scratch marks on trees nearby that hang over walls and evidence of trying to dig under the wall possibly but might be animals. 

- We made it into the palace. Gudrun was greeted warmly, they were very grateful, asked her what she would like in return for reopening the trade route 

- Confirmed that Alistair is missing after the recent attack

- Wanted to request to see the fade agent to talk, they were convinced that they'd already questioned them a lot, but we told them about the urgency of the situation and they acceded 

- We thought we could try a few different techniques, try convincing them that one of us was a double agent with Margaret's disguise skills and some charisma etc or pretend to be breaking them out etc. 

2016/08/24

- Explored some more tombs, found more dead bodies

- Margaret the Paladin joined us, found her in one of the coffins! No memory, this was her family tomb

- Continued examining coffins, found two that had been opened already some time ago; Margaret didn't recognise the large tomb, said that was new

- Jon found necklace on top of big coffin, seemingly alive scarab on it, magic runes on it

- Opened the big coffin, blue eyed ghoul inside with a hole in his chest, attacked us, we all fought

- Margaret finished him off! Jon, Quest and Lil J all swallowed locusts that exploded from his body!

- Margaret perceived that the altar with the broken glass jar held the heart of the thing we just killed, someone's taken it - ingredient for lich?

- Lil J had the brainwave of taking some congealed blood from the altar to take and use on Jostyll's scrying stone

- Gudrun and her half orcs joined us outside the well

- Slept overnight but Quest and Lil J developed a nasty cough, Quest tried quaffing one of the prevent disease potions but didn't cure it. Margaret's cure disease spell did the trick seemingly!

- Received message via the magic paper saying "We have the white cleric"

- Remembered Alistair and wondered if it could be him, thought we could show the amulet he tried to bless to Jostyll

- Made our way to Stillbend having debated for fifteen minutes about horses...

2016/08/17

- Down the well in Arlion after defeating evil monster thing - Quest met with the others and we made camp in the underground cave. - Lil J got his new familiar, a spider, then killed it investigating a pool... - Jon almost killed himself diving into the underground pool, managed to find some item that was on the floor of the pool. A suit of armour as it turned out! - Explored the cave some more. Found a wooden door, rotted like all the other wood around here. Behind was a room filled with guts and gore. Found a slumped corpse at the end, another Fade member. Lots of jars everywhere with runic symbols, containing organs.  - Jon investigated the body, something odd about it. Looked like it had been there for a year but the clothing didn't look that worn.  - Found stone door with ankh symbol on it, jars containing blood and brain in them had same symbols on them. Blood on the door seemed to absorb into it. Nothing happened. Moved corpse to door and put its hand to it, and the door opened. Chopped off his hand as a key to get out again! - Saw tombs in the new room, and three extra rooms shooting off from it. Saw very ornate gilded sarcophagus with an altar in front of it with an empty jar with a crack in it on it. Very thick layer of dust everywhere, it's old.  - Jon felt sorrow from the room when he used his detect evil spell. Undead dotted around the room. Tombs probably have undead in them.  - Read inscription on tomb, saying "I am the Almha and the Omega", suspicious this is the tomb of the ancient lich leader of the Vecna followers and his disciples, and the jars were full of their organs from when they were embalmed.  - Opened a couple of the tombs, found a woman and a teenage elf, all quite a number of years' dead. Decapitated them just in case! Found one live one! Managed to kill it.

2016/08/10

Left Red Plume and journeyed North to Arlyon.

Blackened earth as got closer to the town. Not sure of cause.

Entered town. Wooden buildings all rotting, no vegetation growing.

Only one stone building standing. Entered it. Blackened pool of water inside, tall tree growing. Man hanging from tree.

Lowered man, cleric of Pelor. Buried him in burial ground.

Looked in gravekeepers shack, found another obsidian seeing stone.

Jon sought out evil, seemed to eminate from near river.

Checked out well with use of a snake, lowered all the way to the bottom. No water in it?

Saw sunken blue eyes and flash of a sword before snake taken out.

Party lowered selves down well, Jon clattering down with Lil'J on his back.

Found large waterfall running into a pool of water. Fish within it?

Heard footsteps and tried to sneak nearer. Figure approached and tried to attack.

Managed to manoeuvre within narrow hallways and attack it back, obsidian powder plan didn't work out.

Sunk scorching ray into it and magic missile finally managed to destroy it.

Corpse burning on obsidian powder. Not sure what lurks ahead!

2016/08/03

spoke to Jostil about any information about Arlyon. Told some kind of blight had taken hold of it.

Jostil told us about a 'heartstone' that she uses to find the direction of the nearest of that creature. Tried to use it but didn't have anything of use.

Spoke to blacksmith. Processing obsidian into black powder to use in his furnace. Bartered to get some black powder from him.

Made way to red plume to confront Muzga, got some horses before heading over.

Gudrun confronted Muzga and challenged to single combat - (half orc) woman on (half orc) woman!

Got potion from Gorkil to increase Gudrun's strength. Prepared as best as possible. Emergency word of 'orc bitch' to begin to turn on half orcs and burn village down if needed.

Slugfest ensued. Muzga knocked unconscious but half orc blood roused her. Managed to get one last hit into Gudrun knocking her out!

Gudrun's half orc roused her with 1hp left. Ended up putting foot through Muzga's face.

Gudrun hailed as new leader of Red Plume! Tried to rouse all half orc's to her cause. at least 10 upped and left as loyal to Muzga.

Gudrun decided to open trade routes back to Pyrah. Gudrun decided to remain to sort out Red Plume for a while. Told rest of party to journey on without for the time being. 

2016/07/19

Spoke to Gorkil before sleeping. Asked her to brew something to increase strength. Used ogre tooth as component for it. Told the longer it brews, the more potent it becomes. 

Quest took to bed as feeling incredibly sick from firewater. 

Woke to number of humans begging for food, water, shelter. Turned away by guards on order of Muzga.

A ranger, Katar, who arrived with those begging suggested making camp North. Jon attempted to lead to a flood plain, but set up camp in forest north of red plume on Katar's advice. Jon and Gudrun made couple of trips for supplies. Muzga cast out Gudrun for helping the infirm. 

Decided to head to stillbend with cast outs. 

Headed via watchtower. Katar leading the way. Scouted ahead and found lone kobold prowling. Took it out quickly.

Made camp at watchtower- some kind of gathering in Stillbend? 

Continued on narrow mountain pass. Jon almost fell down ravine trying leapfrog over cast outs. Pack of kobolds attacked!

Dealt with kobolds quickly, Gudrun smashing those she could with her great axe, Jon exploding one with a guiding bolt, and Katar shooting a flying one with his longbow.

Continued on to Stillbend with the army of pensioners, armed with the kobold's weapons - now dubbed the 'grey army'. 

Festivities happening in Stillbend. Jon managed to get pickpocketed.

Made way to temple of Ioun but nowhere to stay. Tried the silver string instead. Had to perform to stay. 

Rousing performance of flute, drumming, and chanting allowed the group to stay within the dorms. Just before sleep, felt warm sensation in backpack reading:

From: no one.

Arlyon calls.

2016/06/29

- Saw smoke from the north, cacophony in camp, seems forest is on fire, some humans fleeing, a half Orc female came in with them

- Gorkhill had heard that the giant had set fire to the latest village it had destroyed

- We went to investigate, Muzga told everyone to hold back bizarrely, to "let them burn"

- Weirdly one hut left standing in burnt village. Footprints headed east again. 

- We decided to follow the footprints east with our new half Orc "friend". Saw some stakes in the ground going round in a circle in the distance. A village. Saw the giant in the distance walking around in there. But it's not smashing anything. It looked living, not undead. 

- Giant started smashing stuff. Our new friend (introduced as Gudrun) snuck towards it to investigate.  Discovered it attacking some villagers, it's an ogre 

- Jon managed to use Command to hold him in place and we decided to just attack him after some attempts at controlling it with suggestion. Managed to kill it to our surprise! 

- Lopped the head off with Jon's Spiritual Weapon and took it back to the Red Plume. Showed the head to everyone. Jon made a grand speech to everyone but Muzga wouldn't allow anyone to leave. Jon continued to speak with Muzga, suggested an alliance with the humans rather than keeping them as slaves. Filled her head with ideas of eventual greater power if she did. Seemed to work, Muzga wanted to talk more later in the day. He spoke with the human leader and tried to get them all on side. 

- Went to see Muzga, saw two groups of orcs, one group around Gurkhill and another around Muzga. Jon continued negotiations. Gudrun said he would lead us and see if we can see through this plan. Jon managed to persuade her not to kill all the old and infirm and babies! Though she would send them out into the wilderness without help. Lawful Grey to the rescue!

- Gorkhill was looking daggers at us, only Gudrun dared leave Muzga's side during the drinking. Gorkhill revealed that she could have a champion fight for her against Muzga. Gudrun could possibly do it, and Gorkhill had some alchemy that she could use to enhance either Gudrun's strength or defense, using the ogre head

2016/06/22

- We puzzled about the Temple of the Harpy and what it could be. Nat 20 intelligence check told us nothing! We hadn't heard of anything related to harpies.

- Decided to cremate the body and wound up setting fire to the entire cave! Made a hasty retreat back into the hostile spiders from earlier. 

- Got past spiders and made it to lift, headed up. Quest was great throughout and definitely didn't need to be hoisted by rope past every climbing challenge.

- Tried writing to the "no one" from the note, saying that there was trouble at the mine and please advise, to see if he responded, no joy

- Camped for the night. Lando is back! Quest AND Lil J had bad dreams this time, the rot on us seems to be spreading in the dreams. We wanted to get rid of the amulets but Lil J and Jon wanted to sell them, Quest was happy to burn them!

- Headed back to town and noticed villages etc had been destroyed, just flattened, no sign of magic or that the orcs had done it. No tracks. No bodies. Lil J had a closer look, managed to find some huge footprints. Followed them east but lost them in muddy ground. Lando scouted and found that there were lots of other villages the same, no sign of any cause or any large beings. The most people were gathered near the Red Plume and the villages were least touched there, almost like they were being pushed towards the Red Plume by something. 

- Decided to have a look at the Red Plume encampment. Met a guard who said that they were taking in refugees from the local area as a result of the stuff that was happening in the villages. He had no clue what was happening in the villages. 

- Jon investigated the healing tent, the orc there said the injured were saying that a disfigured human-looking 12 ft giant did it, and it came from the northwest. Sounded like a troll or minion of some sort, it had a huge belt with cooking implements and even an entire pig attached to it, and would just kill, destroy and eat indiscriminately

- Orc healer said that the new leader had only been the leader for 3-4 weeks and that the refugees they were taking in were being used as slave labour essentially

- Lando got sniped by a Red Plume sentry, dead! Lil J had to get a new familiar, a snake of name uncertain!

- Decided we'd go and see Mozga and speak to her about the approaching threat of the giant and maybe the other orcs too

- We mentioned the orcs to the west and she wanted glorious battle, didn't seem totally against the idea, she wanted additional things like protection from future meddling and growing the tribe. She didn't overly care about the orcs unless they somehow threatened her. Same with the giant, she said it could come and they'd fight it if it did

- Lil J managed to piss the orcs off, he cast invisibility and slunk off. Quest got left to have his face smeared with weird coal stuff by an angry Mozga. Left as she ordered!

2016/05/18

Asked Shakey about possible jobs, told to speak to Nanna who is after fabrics for her gowns. Told about 3 giant beasts to find and bring skins to her for a reward.

Slept overnight at the silver string.

Visited Shakey again and given a slip of paper each.

If all choose share - 300gp

If one chooses steal - they get 600gp and chance to ask a question

If more than one choose steal - gain nothing

Handed paper to Shakey who said that two chose steal. Told to have one last chance, to come back and try again at noon.

Saw funeral for Piers, cast off on burning raft at dockside.

Discussed what to do, agreed for Quest to choose to steal, others to share.

Visited Shakey again, who said the game was to work out who can be trusted. Handed same slips of paper. Two chose steal! Left with nothing.

Headed towards obsidian mine and camped there overnight. Single set of foot tracks entering.

Entered mine and lowered down lift.

Came across door with a symbol on it, coin put in door slot opened it.

Quest fell down hole in next corridor, attacked by swarm of spiders.

Got out of hole and went through next door leaving spiders scrabbling behind.

Large chasm with giant spider in it.

Tried to bless as quietly as possible, but noticed!

Quest webbed by spider and poisoned from a bite from it.

Lil'J blasted it with lightning, and Jon finally shattered it with a few blows from his spiritual weapon.

Recovered a spider fang and some spider silk.

Body probably a worshipper of Vecna/fade member. Had cryptic note on them with a stone with symbols.

Solved the cipher: 'Return to the temple of the harpy at once. Remember that to enter is threefold: of voice, of stone, and of blood. Sincerely, no one.'

2016/05/04

- Killed the spirit of Pearce, after some considerable effort and borderline TPK!

- Found letter to Daisy on desk, regretting how he’d been; sold his soul to become more powerful and woo her, but ended up locked in this cave

- Found the wand in the desk drawer

- Found an obsidian seeing stone similar to the Fade ones; looked through it and we all saw a building at night-time near a graveyard and well. Jon felt warmth and good feelings coming from the place.

- Lil J took the wand, wants to return it to Shaky ASAP

- Cleric took the armour from one of the armoured thralls we downed, a full set of dinted plate! Taking it with us for repair

- Went inside a side room with a pedestal with some parchment on it; we tried to get it but activated a trap, burning it up; kept the fragments

- Headed back with the body of Pearce and all that plate mail.

- Took down a child’s head from a nearby stake to take to Jostyll

- Found the town celebrating festival

- Told to go and see the market district about making funeral arrangements; Jon did so

- Split up, Jon to market and Quest etc went to the Bardic Guild

- Explained Pearce’s death to Daisy and gave her his letter etc; warned her about the possible Fade plot as well. Asked her to look around the Guild but found nothing untoward.

- Jon managed to leave Pearce’s body with the guards to look after, didn’t want to pay the undertakers at the market!

- Went to Shaky re the wand; he offered us a choice of gold, or some information, anything we cared to ask for. Said we’d come back at sunrise when we’d decided what information we’d like 

2016/04/27

- We investigated the desk while Quest took the traumatised guard downstairs and tried to calm him

- "Cause fear, destroy the silver string", Lil J found this message in one of the letters in the desk, magically hidden

- Merchand the guard said he'd been under "Kelvin's" control for a few days. Said the bloke was acting as an intermediary, passing on messages between Fade agents via magic paper system. Last message was to destroy the Stonesthrow pub in Pyrah. Good news is we now have one of their magic pieces of paper, and guard confirmed all messages were done on the same sheet, so we can spy!

- Sent Lando the owl out 

- Looked through the telescope there that the Fade agent was using and it was pointed at the Bardic Guild in Stillbend 

- Also looked at different areas including Red Plume orcs, saw details of the camp, 80-90 strong, human labour force, staked village, large tent in middle, and a staked pit

- Buried the bodies and had a long rest

- People that held the evil amulets had more bad dreams, being turned into undead skeletons

- Headed towards the cave the next morning

- Approached entrance to cave and saw stone blocking the way, a carved gaping mouth with recessed stone inside; inscribed with Camemell, recently put there 

- Touched door and heard it say "who goes there". Managed to solve the riddle and get inside

- Saw three doors, one with an eye, one with ear, one with hand, and four statues each holding a different weapon; rapier, great axe, great sword and morning star, also a trap door with three precious gems in it 

- Long story short, we took a very long time to solve some very short puzzles. Trap door unlocked!

- Opened trap door and went down to a door. Musical notation on it; figured it out and proceeded into next room

- Came up against the ghost of Pearce, we mentioned Daisy and it angered him, started to attack us!

2016/04/20

- Guards came and big guard picked up the torso. We decided to follow him, he headed into Jostyll's spire. 

- Met Jostyll again, the orcs had been killing the children for a while and dropping off torsos

- Jostyll didn't seem to have a plan other than turtling! 

- Met Lil J and he started helping us on our quest!

- We weren't sure how to deal with the problem; High Hill Keep supposedly impregnable

- Decided to head for the Bardic Guild and ask about how people were feeling about the orcs and such and possibly rustle up some help to deal with it

- Didn't pan out though the leader of the guild did reveal that the fellow who went to get the wand was probably her partner Pierce

- We came up with a vague plan to go and find the wand! 

- We headed off but noticed the watch tower was nearby and decided to explore it since it was on the way

- Lil J scouted out the tower with his owl Lando, heard some people talking further up

- Went inside and saw some bodies of the Fade, 3-4 days old

- Talked with the guards there, apparently 4 of them attacked and they didn't even use magic just tried to stab them, the guards easily fended them off. Checked the bodies but nothing strange though they had no amulets.

- Discovered four sets of studded armour with stab marks, suspected the guards were not really guards but Fade

- Lil J investigated but got seen, immediately they turned hostile and revealed themselves to be Fade, combat ensued! 

- Managed to overcome the old man (Jon heroically batted his head through the window) and the younger one seemed to snap out of some sort of glamour, Quest managed to calm him; started thinking about what to do next

2016/04/13

- Quest had a dream about Dane being lashed and Roondar being tortured with acid and his soul being stolen 

- Met Mark's character Jon Harrow the cleric, took him with us as he had knowledge of religion and Pellor in particular, took us to meet Alistair the head of said temple

- Met Kessell, who was speaking for Alistair who had taken a vow of silence. They had heard about the Fade and rumours about the watch tower like others had. 

- Quest spoke to Alistair with telepathy and told him about Vecna and Alistair attempted to purify the amulets, and told us of old conflicts with Vecna, that Jostyll in Stillbend might know more

- We decided to head to Stillbend and started enquiring about getting a boat ride at the docks, 20 gold a head from one of them! Also met a crazy hermit, not much help. But we continued persuading him and in the end the cleric managed to persuade him that he'd heal his medical problems shall we say, while he was inside with him we cast off, the dwarf had proficiency all of a sudden! Cleric managed to injure the old man but cured his gallstones at least! (HEAVILY CENSORED VERSION...) we didn't ask about the girl/woman/corpse thing in the corner......

- Managed to arrive in Stillbend in his ship. Decided to search for Alistair's contact and the temple if possible to seek healing for the old man

- Looked around merchants and didn't find anyone selling enchanted or intricate obsidian items

- Looked for some food and drink to potentially buy a supply from for Pyra and just generally explored

- Went to the Temple of Ioun and spoke to the head cleric there about our crazy old man friend, and we offered to help control the modrons, these strange little spider constructs that appeared recently, cleric used his animal handling; discovered they were refining wild magic and putting it into crates; eventually Quest taught her some Infernal as we had no luck with the modrons and she agreed to send help for our "friend"!

- Made it to the tower where Jostyll works, made it past the bureaucrat outside via some deception by Quest and saw her, she told us about Vecna and how a lich is born; soul of a willing volunteer, preserved heart of an ancient being, stone of fire and brimstone, and sacrifice of an innocent. Also only able to be performed at the solstices. We're only two weeks from the next solstice!

- Cleric remembered that in times of strife people would turn to The Fade and their leader the Gloombringer

- Went to see Shaky at Nana's Shop

- Trade in obsidian from the mine, smith in town is using lots of it, Shaky is the middleman. He hates the Fade but doesn't know anything

- Orcs may be stealing the children and threatening the town

- Saw heavily armoured Orc on a wolf entering town, tossed torso of a child down in front of everyone and then left!! A grisly confirmation that they've got the kids. Going to stop them! Dane is incensed. Feels like a distraction like the Red Plumes near Pyra.

2016/04/06

- Roondar got initiative on the two blokes in the cellar, injured them, saw an amulet on one of them, a priest? Managed to incapacitate those two - Another priest turned up and we fought him, he turned to mist and legged it up the stairs into wherever is above, screams heard - Dane followed him up, and found he'd killed the barmaid in a similar fashion to the other bodies recently, all burned and melted, when she tried to stop him. He then sliced himself, committing suicide, saying the Fade was calling him. Roondar bound up the two downstairs. Everyone was scared, Dane and Quest tried to calm them. Dane managed to persuade dwarves to help, one of them went and got the guard. - Quest went down to help Roondar with the two downstairs. Looked at the powder and the barrels, many filled with just black powder, not poisoned beer after all - Watchtower with a flag joined to the side of it on the barrels - Looked at their amulets. Black skull cracked made out of obsidian stone - Frisked the unconscious one, only found an amulet - Brought the two from downstairs upstairs as the Royal guards arrived, explained situation to them - Mortician turned up. Looked over everything, found a scroll; Quest helped her interpret, and also discovered amulets were enchanted with dark magic - Royal guards were going to inform the Prince, and invited us to come. Went with them to the palace. - Prince Ered was sitting in throne looking bored, half Orc guard and old advisor nearby - Elderly man there called himself Gillup, was sceptical about magic and shocked by our story seemingly.  - Spoke about Fade, said that there was a skirmish at an outpost nearby, good place to investigate  - Found stones on each of them with a skull with an eye with an opening in it - Gave us insignia of Kingsguard to help with investigation and given leave to investigate - Also mentioned about the Red Plume, female half-Orc leader, threatening Pyra and saying she'll cut off trade - Said to show the skull stones to Blane Stonespeaker - Dane asked Bruna the half-Orc lady and a couple of others about the Red Plume Orc tribe, said that their leader Muzga defeated the previous nice leader in a trial by combat. - Offered the Stonesthrow to stay in for now for free! - Decided to go and see Blane about the obsidian skulls after a short rest - Discovered that the skull stones were spying devices that were linked, wasn't sure about the amulet and suggested the library - We managed to find an old tome that had information about Vechna, an old wizard who tried to become a god but became a lich instead, slain, but his followers still try to resurrect him, the God of Secrets, also undead, opposes Ioun - Asked Blane about it, disgusted by the God of Secrets, warned us that it would be difficult to uncover; he didn't know anything more. Let us keep the book in exchange for some knowledge that we shared with him.

2016/03/30

-Potential unrest in city and Greg char to investigate as spy for the Gnome King Lap of the Valley

- Heading to Pyra village to investigate. Arrived! Explored a bit. Seems totally normal. Bustling market etc everyone seemed normal!

- Found a dais with folk gathered round it, lots of tension. Someone had died and they were trying to get the Kingsguard. Saw Kingsguard coming from castle, crowd started whispering about magic for some reason, seemed distrustful? The guard went to the dais. 

- Saw weird fellow coming out of the black temple nearby, spoke with Kingsguard, saw body on stretcher being taken to said temple. The body was partially melted. Quest the Tiefling discerned that necrotic magic had done it. 

- Dwarf discerned temple was built in worship of the Raving Queen. Sounds dark!

- Priests and commoners were talking with each other, no issues there

- Dwarf asked some questions and they said that the Raving Queen takes as she desires, didn't seem to care about death. 

- Also worshipped Ioun there who was all about trade etc. Raving Queen seen as evil; but just treats death as fact of life and assists with passage to afterlife. Pellor is about life and agriculture. 

- Commoners saying that magic is bad and that King is on death bed after evil plot against him, harmed by magic, magic outlawed by prince. They're very monarchic! Very loyal to prince.

- Headed to the Stoneshrow pub. Wanted information. Dwarves in there said that the death wasn't spoken about in public. They eventually said that people who were in good favour with the King were found dead recently, advisors and Kingsguard etc. Had to buy them drinks! King is on life support as it were. Said the Prince was only 13. His advisors are very well protected and don't see them out in public much. When questioned about anti-magic feeling before the King became ill, said a group called The Fade was always anti-King. They keep themselves hidden. They reckoned that the Raving Queen lot could be involved with them, they were anti-monarchy from some of their preaching. Niane was their head priest. 

- We decided to investigate the Raving Queen temple. Cleric nearby said we could find Niane inside. Niane was comforting some of the family seemingly of the guy who just died. 

- Naine said an important person that died. I said to him about possibility of necrotic magic, he did agree it was magic. Mortician was working on the body. Dane got the feeling that he wasn't telling us everything. He actually offered to us to see the body. We went to see Elaine the mortician! 

- Scatty. Got out of her that there were other bodies like this recently. We helped out. She showed me the scroll. It was a request from prince and advisors seeking audience with Niane, Blane Stonespeaker and Alistair. She suspected the dead body was of a messenger carrying this to him. She let us see the other bodies! Four of them. We found that not all of them were necrotic damage; weapon damage, big bite from animal. Went further in and there's a door downstairs; tried to pick it but bodged it. Lockpick sheared off in door so they'll know we've been down here! 

- Rabid rats, including a big deformed one, two bodies on plinths nearby. Fended off the rats and had a look at the bodies. These ones had the same necrotic damage. Found a desk on a lower floor and bookcases. Journal by Elaine was there. She talked about the two bodies in particular that she had. One was a King's advisor, killed with necrotic damage, dead in the bathroom. The other was a Kingsguard, killed while on duty, dead by one of the temples near the tavern. Both bodies aged unnaturally. Muscles wasted away. 

- We had a look at one of the bookcases and found a hole behind one of them. Headed into a tunnel. Dwarf discovered we were possibly heading under another building. In a circular room. Mound of dead rats on the floor and another large mutant one. Corridor leading off supported by wooden beams and panels. Went down and algae got worse. Eventually a large mass was in front of us. We burst it with dwarf handaxe, spores released; he was affected and saw hallucination of Beholder and ran off. Eventually recovered! 

- Kept going and saw more algae stuff. Saw an alleyway towards the end, and another room. Listening in there was whispering in the room saying they didn't have all day etc. Thumping and metal on metal noises and more thumping. There was music coming from above. 

- In the room were rows and rows of barrels. Roondar sneaked ahead and saw them pouring powder into one of the barrels and rolling it back in. Decided to try and incapacitate them. Next time!