Luh Kranky Krank couldn’t make it, initially because he was going to go play in the sunshine, but found out later he was down with a migraine. 🙁 Lexy, Savannah, and Ben came to play.

Given it was a super sunny and 70 degree day we BBQ’d burgers and had a little picnic and hung out for a little. Lexy and Savannah played some cards first.

The session started off with a very brief overview of the previous session. I reminded them that they were standing in the hallway having just exited the room where they defeated all the zombies. Gendithas Firpride was standing over the body of a giant spider he had cut in half, and was making sure the crew was silent.

They decided to go down the hallway that Reo Grayrlock had gotten such a bad feeling about. As they approached the hallway this time, both Elitacee and Quelenna Amastacia were hit with a wave of fear that was almost paralyzing. The further down the hallway they walked, the more visions ran through their heads, and the more unsettled they became. Reo Grayrlock took point and went into the room first. She scouted everything out and saw nothing. The rest of the crew came in once she declared the room as safe as it could be.

The ceiling was close to 40′ high, and very dark. Stalactites hung from the ceiling. There was a book shelf that was being used as a room divider. On the side they crew was currently on, there was a sleeping area with 4 beds, and a round wood table with 4 chairs. Four crates stood behind the iron gate that gave entry into the room.

Elitacee went over and checked the beds and found nothing, and checked the bookshelf and discovered nothing.

The crew investigated the crates and found several useful items. There were 4 moon-touched-sword-xge (shortsword) in fancy leather scabbards. There was an immovable-rod , an odd looking dagger , and 6 sets of super lightweight chain-mail. There was a 4th chest that was empty but was lined in fine linen; there were 4 divots in both the top and the bottom of the case, which was obviously meant to hold 4 spherical items.

Upon a close investigation of the rod, Quelenna Amastacia noticed the button, and pushed it – expanding the rod to its 5′ length and locking it in to place – much to their delight. They then sent Reo Grayrlock over towards the bookshelf where she jumped and extended the rod at the top of her reach. She then pulled herself up on the rod to get a better view of the cavern ceiling to see if they could discover anything. She was able to see that there was a ledge that ran all the way around the cavern, as well as stone bridges that crossed all over from edge to edge. This was all she could really see from there, so she got down.

They left Luh Kranky Krank to guard the door, and they all gathered towards the end of the large bookshelf so that they could head in to the other side of the room. The feeling of dread continued to grow for Quelenna Amastacia and Elitacee.

They ventured through into the other side. Immediately to their left they found a side room that had multiple weapons racks and additional chests, which they explored. In the chests they found: On the staff rack they found 4 staffs. One is an old gnarled piece of wood. One was an obsidian staff, smooth and black, with three pointed prongs off the top. The 3rd is a basic wood staff with a metal wrapping at each end. The fourth was a staff that tapered at the bottom, and had entwined metal like substance that wraps its way up the top of the staff and culminates in tangled, electricity-like tendrils coming up off the top. They also found a longsword and a shortsword on the weapons rack, which they left.

From this point, they ventured out more in to the middle of the room. Reo Grayrlock used the rod to climb up near the ceiling again, holding her moon-touched-sword-xge up high to illuminate the ceiling area, where she saw nothing, despite the feeling of being watched.

Quelenna Amastacia lit the large torch sconces on the walls – there were 3 of them – and they found themselves in the middle of a office workshop. At the far end stood a large, imposing desk. To each side of the desk was a locked glass cabinet, and immediately across from the side room was another, short bookshelf.

Elitacee went to the bookshelf, and found a case with three scrolls in it (2 of which could not be read by anybody in the party, and one that was some sort of star chart).

Reo Grayrlock and Quelenna Amastacia went to the desk, and on the way by noticed that the one cabinet was filled with jars, vials, and containers of some sort of ingredients, and there was a leather case in the bottom of it. The other case had filled vials and flasks. Both cases were locked.

On the desk was an odd jug that had multiple spouts, and was covered in symbols. A pedestal with a glass cloche over it held a folded white cloth. There was a handful of scrolls, and a ink pen with a dried up ink well. A strange, jet black box sat in the middle of the desk. Black metal bands wrapped the box, and also made up the latch for it. When they opened the latch, the box was finished inside with a fine, rich black fabric lining and contained 3 rings.

They pulled the cloth out and unfolded it, to reveal a 6′ x 6′ square with a large, black circle in the middle. Holding it up the fabric, they couldn’t figure out anything about the cloth, and decided to move on. They unsuccessfully attempt to figure out the jug. In the meantime, Elitacee unfolded the fabric again and put it on the ground – at which point the circle became a hole in the ground, much to the surprise of Reo Grayrlock and Quelenna Amastacia . They tried to figure out how to get down into the hole safely – until they looked over the edge and realized it was only about 10′ deep. So Reo Grayrlock jumped down into the hole – and found hanging on the wall a set of keys, which she grabbed. Unsurprisingly they figured out the keys unlocked the two cabinets, which they then packed up.

They used one of the empty chests to pack up all the vials and flasks, and they packed up the leather case and all the components they could fit from the other cabinet, and placed it all in the bottom of the hole, along with the staffs.

After having packed everything up, they folded the cloth up and Elitacee put it in her storage compartment. They then turned their attention to the ceiling to see if there was any way to get up above and explore – at which point they started seeing movement. Quelenna Amastacia through a produce-flame up into the ceiling – and the light reflected off of a whole lot of eyeballs. Followed by chittering, and a rush of huge spiders coming through the crevices in the ceiling. Gendithas Firpride yelled for everybody to run, which they were all already doing. As they rushed through the room, Luh Kranky Krank ran out into the hallway with everybody following. Reo Grayrlock brought up the rear, and pulled the iron gate shut just as an enormous spider crashed against it, reaching through the bars and trying to grab her. The crew ran down the hallway, and as soon as they breached the entrance Harry and Precious came barreling down from the entrance, with Precious carrying the unconscious gregornie the camel which he had knocked out. They were yelling that the airship had landed outside and those on the ship were coming into the cave. As they barreled towards the rest of the crew, everybody turned to go deeper into the caves, and all of the floor traps were sprung releasing darts which flew back and forth across the hallways behind the fleeing party.

They came to the end of the tunnel they were in to another large cavern – to find giant spiders pouring out of the crevasses in the ceiling and coming down the walls. At this point everybody could hear yelling from the entrance to the caverns from the airship crew. A bunch of the spiders broke off and headed up the passageway to confront the new group. Reo Grayrlock and Quelenna Amastacia rushed deeper into the cavern and found the lair of the owlbear – complete with all the bones and remains. This end of the cavern had piles of rubble, and a large, clear pool of water filled with bioluminescent creatures. The middle of the pool held a hole that had a current rushing through under it, which was visible by the fact that the bioluminescent creatures that were waving in the current. As they watched (all while the spiders were advancing on the rest of the party) the lake started to get darker, and large bubbles started coming up and breaking the surface. As the surface got more violent with whatever was happening both Reo Grayrlock and Quelenna Amastacia rushed back to join the main group. Gendithas Firpride and the rest of the group had backed down a crevasse with only one way in, with the logic that it was easier to defend a single point. As Reo and Quelenna made it up to the entrance and rushed inside, the owlbear broke the surface of the lake and let out a horrific screech and barreled out of the lake. The spiders vanished almost instantly as the owlbear rushed past and up the tunnel, leaving the party stunned – and both euphoric and panicked. They all very quickly decided to head into the lake and down that hole, since the owlbear had to come from somewhere. While they listened to the battle up the tunnel, they opened the fabric piece, knocked the camel out again who had come to, dropped him in to the hole, folded the cloth back up, Elitacee stowed it in her body, and then they all jumped in to the water and vanished into the hole, where the current grabbed them and sucked them down into the hole.

And that’s where everything left off.

Met at the deli; Joel, Shea, Ben, Savannah, Lexy

Levelled up to 3, and then watched the D&D movie

After a long hiatus we met today. We played up at the alderbrook house at the dining room table. Ben, Savannah, Joel, Trail, and Lexy were all there. Met at 10:30 and finally got started about 11:15 or 11:30 maybe.

Started with a quick overview to catch Trail up on all of the sessions that he has missed.

Picking up from the last session it was roughly 7:00 at night and they started off at the edge of the woods at the river looking at the airship which had settled into the trees up the river at the crossing where they first went to the caverns and hid. They were able to see the mysterious cloaked figure in red up on the airship at the helm.

They were able to observe the layout of the ship and that it was not a balloon style airship but rather a significantly more rare magical airship. The ship was described and a little bit of a history of airships in this environment where giving including that they are very rare and the magic ones are the most rare. That they have a crew, they were able to see roughly 10 people up on the ship along with the figure in red. The ship was anchored with four lines coming down and touching trees on either end due to its length. Jeb and the bandit crew were there and working with the airship crew to track down the adventurers.

They watched a animated disagreement that resulted ultimately in the figure in red using some sort of magical something to blast another figure off the ship into the woods. At this point Jeb took a knee in deference to the person in red.

Jeb sent his crew out in five teams of two each up and down the river and into the forest in order to try to track down the adventurers.

After lots and lots of debate the team decided to try to get closer to see what else they could notice and eventually Gregornie decided he was going to climb up one of the tie down lines on to the deck and see what he could find. Reo Grayrlock used her boots spider climbing and carried Harry up the tree. They managed to stealthily all get onto the boat and avoid detection and proceeded to enter and search the captain’s quarters quite literally under the nose of the person in the red cloak.

In searching the desk they gathered 3 parchments of maps, along with various other items detailed in another section here. They also found some disgusting alcoholic beverage that Gregornie stole.

And going to leave Gregornie accidentally shut the door too hard and drew the attention of the person in red. Simultaneously Jeb saw the crew that had remained on the ground and heard the door slam up above and put two and two together and immediately started rushing up the rope ladder to get on to the ship. He started talking to the individual in red which masked the sounds of the loud three adventurers that were up above to get down to the ground and then flee.

They successfully evaded detection and made it further north until they found a safe spot to camp for the night.

The session started with morning breaking over camp and everyone waking up and coming to and finding that Precious had picked up his things and walked out of camp. The group then discussed with Gendithas Firpride and Zyndan what to do and what priorities were, with the NPCs saying that their priority was finding the owlbear but that they would be available and around if other things came up and they were together and their paths had not diverged.

From there they started walking towards the river and away from the camp. In the forest they were randomly attacked by four [[blink-dog]] , which they successfully defeated.

They arrived at the river and saw the airship hovering above a shallow crossing down the river. The group stayed in the trees under cover. And that’s where the session ended because Savannah was ill. It was dusk when they reached the river.

The party started up near the top of the pathway towards the airship platform clearing. The elf got healed immediately and then they realized they had to go back down into the main bandit camp in order to find and get Gregorornie the camel and they decided they wanted to search jeb’s cabin one more time.

They started in jeb’s cabin and found pretty much the remainder of the things that needed to be found including the Riddle, Reo took the cartographers kit, pen and ink set, spyglass, etc.

They successfully made it over to the “barn” / old mill, and found the camel. They also gathered up additional materials. They found barding that they modified and put on the camel, as well as 4 saddle bags (2 front, two back) that they put some of their newfound loot in.

From there, they heard the bandits returning to camp, so they rushed up and out into the woods from the airship.

They made their way towards the river. At one point after traveling for a few hours, they had 4 giant constrictor snakes drop out of the trees on them. Because they were with the Ranger, they were not surprised, and initiative was rolled.

Zindan had a snake land on her and immediately grapple her. Harry managed to dispatch one of the snakes in just a couple of rounds; Gendithas took another. Reo took one between her dagger and her claws ripping it in half, and Elitacee managed to grab the head of the 4th when it tried to strike, and pulled it apart in one round and then severed the head from the body over his knee on the second round.

From there they walked another hour until dusk, and found a small clearing where they made camp.

Harry spent the time to learn about his gloves. Reo spent the time to learn about her doll.

They still have no idea what the grey bag is…. 😉

Ended the session right before they wake up.

This session started off with Elitacee, Harry, and Precious in the cabin of Jeb, and Reo out in the woods still. While the three in the cabin were waiting for Jeb to come back or for something to happen they searched the cabin. They found the letter to Jeb outlining his priorities in being the leader of the bandit camp. They searched his desk and found a fair amount of information. They also found some loot. That list is to the side.

After a time of searching the cabin they tried to sneak out and ended up making enough noise that it attracted the attention of the guard that was talking to Jeb, and the guard on the other side of the camp. By this time Reo had looped back around the camp and climbed a tree in back and had a vantage point of what was going on. The guard with Jeb immediately ran towards the cabin with Jeb following at a slight distance, the guard across camp also headed towards the cabin. The three disappeared into the woods crashing loudly, but Harry managed to be silent and sneak around to the other side of where everyone else had gone and hid and waited. In the fight that ensued, Reo, who did not know that Jeb had been revealed as a good guy, shot him as he ran, from her perch in the tree. She barely wounded him but he dove into the bushes and hid which also allowed him to avoid being part of the fight. Harry ended up sneak attacking and killing the other male guard. In the meantime the female guard tried to round the corner and got shot by Reo and pulled back out of sight. Reo decided to come down the tree and move around to the other side and used her dash action to get around to the other side of the building. On the next round she was able to use her bow to shoot the bandit girl, who then backed around the corner of the building. At the same time she started to raise her voice to cry out and as it turns out got herself shot in the back by all three of the other members of the team before she was able to get out a shout. Both bandits are now down. Jeb comes out and is protected by the crew from Reo who doesn’t yet know what’s going on, and this is now explained to her period Jeb then informs them that up behind camp is a landing pad for an airship of the zhentarim who are coming to pick up prisoners and loot. The prisoners are part of kyries crew. Jeb asks the team to free the prisoners before nightfall when the airship arrives and then has them beat him severely until he’s basically unconscious which shaded with pleasure.

The team then goes up the wooded path to the back and explorers and finds no one there in terms of bandits, so they free the prisoners add dig through all of the loot gathering what they could take. That list will be off on the side as well.

The session ended with them debating what to do and headed back down towards the camp.

I did give an overview of the five main factions at work on the sword coast because that is basic information that the adventurers would have known, and they needed to recognize these in the logo on the letter to Jeb. They did find a signet ring belonging to Jeb hiding under his floorboards under his bed that had the same logo as Kiri’s signet ring further cementing Jeb as a plant into the bandit camp. The players do not know the extent of his involvement or what he’s actually trying to accomplish particularly. You can see the letter in the appropriate file that was sent to jab which describes his duties including finding and looting a tomb.

Started off by running through the past session with the Dryad, and updating them on what happened and what was learned and discovered. Brought them current to the cave.

They decided to pack everybody up and head back towards the fork in the road.

Precious in particular, but to a point supported by Harry , was very torturous of the prisoners, relishing terrifying them and tormenting them.

They followed the path back to the fork in the road, and then followed that new path to the entrance of the lumbercamp.

They did not realize it was a bandit camp.

The “leader” of the camp – Jebeddo Kreesp – heartily welcomed them in, healed up the wounds of the prisoners, escorted the prisoners away from the crew. He then invited them to join in for a dinner feast.

RP conversation where Jeb danced around the questions that were being asked of the specific owlbear.

Harry successfully picked the pocked of one of the bandits, but never found out what was inside.

The crew tried to negotiate to get them to join in the hunt for the owlbear. Harry offered payment of all the things that they had taken off of the dead bodies (not realizing yet that this was a bandit camp). Jeb “suggested” that it was foolish to offer things that already belonged to his own bandit crew and was taken off the dead bodies of bandits as payment, and that was when they crew realized that this was a bandit camp.

Reo Grayrlock had decided to go forage and not eat with the bandits, so she was out in the forest when the rest of them were knocked prone, stripped of all their gear, tied up and put in a tent. An obvious search for her ensued; she climbed a tree at the edge of camp to watch what was happening (Precious was offering her up as payment for Jeb’s assistance), so she saw all, and stayed hidden in that tree.

About 3:30 in the morning, she came down from the tree, about the same time that the rest of the crew in the tent decided to try to break free.

Elitacee used her armblade – an overlooked weapon – to slice through their ropes; Harry immediately ditched everybody and made off towards the forest at the edge of camp. He made it from the tent to the building next to the tent, where he made a slight noise – which resulted in the door to the building being opened and him being drug inside, a hand over his mouth and somebody holding him down and saying “it’s about time”

Precious and Elitacee went over to find him having watched him vanish, but Elitacee was not stealthy and made a loud banging noise.

The person on top of Harry left immediately and walked from the building into camp knocking things about to cover up the noise, and asked if anybody had yet found “the cat” – this person was Jeb. The response was no, so Jeb headed back to his quarters – the building that the team was all now in. He told them that this was his personal quarters and nobody ever came in here, so the crew needed to lie low. He had brought their gear in to his quarters, and let them go back and grab it all.

That’s when Reo Grayrlock stepped on a huge branch that snapped loudly enough to alert the camp guards, and Jeb left to help in the hunt for her. She was chased into the woods, where she doubled back and stealthed, and used her spider slippers to climb a tall tree.

This is where we left the evening.