Rat Gang: Session Re-caps

## The Beginning that no one got to Experience

This story began at the Roadside Inn, between Flymmel and Thordrend in Hynia. It was truly pure coincidence. Diz was trying out a new formulae in a nearby bandit camp where Valanthe had been captured along with her duck familiar Billy. He had unintentionally saved her but as they learnt that they were both warlocks they formed a sort of bond as all warlocks had recently been scorned for the actions of the Mad Necro-king(See Age of the Necro-king in History). They went back to the roadside Inn where they met a man known as "The Commissioner" who offered missions with gold as reward.

"Should you ever be in need of funds, you can undertake a... "quest" of sorts from me. Just send me a message with this." He had said as he placed an empty scroll in front of them. He gave them a mission to discern whether the king of Riversend was being manipulated and to confirm whether the advisor was a necromancer. They set forth to Riversend.

Valanthe and Diz met Laurentius at the Adventure Inn, an Inn & Tavern in Riversend. They took note of his clothes which made him appear as a scholar of sorts and approached him in search of information about the Royal Advisor potentially being a Necromancer. Laurentius found the 2 of them to his intrigue and invited them over for fika in his tenement to discuss further. After revealing that the jobs might take them elsewhere in the world, Laurentius interest is piqued. He agrees to join them should they go out traveling. During the dealings of the conversation Diz asked about spell scrolls, as he tried to get a discount from the Scroll & Scribes part-timer(Laurentius). A peculiar black tail caught Valanthe's attention by the window, she opened the door to find nothing. Seemingly bored of the conversation of the other two, she goes back to the inn to gather information. Valanthe speaks with one of the barmaids, the one known as Cindy, from her Valanthe gleans that there's a blackmarket within the walls of the city but you would need an insignia of Grey Raven's league, a proof of membership, in order to gain access. Valanthe regroups with the others and relays the information to them. As the three of them question how they would get their hands on these types of pins there's a knocking at the door. Laurentius opened the door to revealing nothing at first but as something, someone, cleared their throat his eyes panned down to see a humongous rat, humanoid thing in the doorway. A humanoid rat species is unheard of. Thus this experience comes off as highly unnatural however, the rat who calls himself Rodent bows before the warlock duo as if praising them as higher beings through this flattery he managed to somehow be accepted into the group in accordance with presenting them with Insignia's of the Grey Raven's League, that later on manages to grant them access to the black market.

In the black market they meet with a halfling informant and learn about suspicious actions and contacts that the royal advisor seems to have. They also learn of the sewers beneath the Castle where they somehow end up meeting a spymaster, under the guise of being architects they slip through the security and manage to get into the royal bed chambers as well as the royal advisors study. Upon entering the advisors study that are caught within a wall of green flames where they are promptly knocked out and escorted to the prison. Working out a deal with the spymaster an escape has been staged. They are later on granted an audience with the king, dressed as peasants. The king doesn't take kindly to the party's accusations and they are thrown out of the court room.

Tate sends them on another mission instead. He first asks that they find the Golden Fairy of Kar'ael who will lead them to the Hidden Moongrove where they may be of service and even gain the favor of a great organization.

As they travel the greatbridge from Hynia to Astaren they notice someone in the middle of the river, seemingly splashing around, potentially about to drown. They save the kelp-covered person which turns out to be a triton by the name Azakyn. Feeling indebted, yet also curious about the land of the shore-dwellers, they join the party in their journey to find the Golden Fairy. Triton is an unsually but not completely unheard of race. They are known to exist but far and few has ever seen one in person.

On the road to Kar'ael their carriage breaks down in Brohut where they solve a mystery of stolen goods, turning a quest to neutralize some tabaxian prowlers into ending a dispute between two tabaxian tribes with human accomplices. The party has from there gained the favor of the two Tabaxian tribes, the Stormtooth and the Sharpclaw. The events took place on the Dorée plains of Astaren.

With the carriage repaired they reach Kar'ael, the party finds the golden fairy, a blind half-elven bard by the name Carrion, who will guide them to The Moongrove, hidden within the twisting forest also known as the Theornewood.

For the first five minutes after they enter the forest it seems just like any other forest, a bit bigger trees that only seem to grow bigger the deeper you go. The roots grow larger too as the path becomes less clear but still barely visible. The leaves only let in a small amount of the sun rays through the forest roof and as the party continues deeper into the forest they come across Carrion's brother, Varis, battered and scratched. He returns back to the village after getting patched up by his sister.

The party continues on the path and after walking for quite some longer time it becomes very dark, even though it shoud be in the middle of the day by now. The path has become intelligible and the path has faded completely from view. Suddenly there's a low rumbling and as the woods creaks it twists and turns. As the party glances backwards they notice that there's nowhere to turn back to anymore. "Welcome to the ever-changing maze of the Theornewood. Not even a minotaur can find their way through here."

The party fights their way through the maze against corrupted twig creatures, with the help of Carrion they find their way through the Theornewood and reach the Moongrove.

## 2021-06-05 Session one: Arrival at the Moongrove

As the party comes to an end of the maze's dark pathways, the forest begins to clear up and takes on a luscious green vibe. They reach a peculiarly formed tree. It bends in a bow, circular shape, almost like a bridge or a gate. Through it is a smaller vale with a little pond and a small waterfall on the right side which leads to a smaller river that goes through the entire area. It's completely silent but the sun is shining upon the vale. Looking closer on the gate it seems rune-etched in a a foreign language but only lightly, like the tree was made with them and not forced onto it. There's also a rounded stone with multiple circular cavities etched into it. It looks so smooth as if it was naturally formed as well.

Carrion pulls out a small green pouch. She seems to place something in the stone and it begins to hum lightly with a dim blue color surrounding it. Then she turns to the party "Let's enter shall we?".

Arriving in the Moongrove they are confronted by a firbolg who seems to be speaking in a gibberish language. The twigs are taken from them in exchange for 4 gold given to Valanthe. The Firbolg, who seemed to refer to himself as Loomi then proceeds to walk off leaving the party to take in the sight of the hidden grove.

The sun is not what seems to fully illuminate the area as a humongous tree just past the river casts a huge shadow with its large crown. In between its roots there's various entry ways to an area seemingly underneath, maybe even inside the tree. There are various glowing fruits hanging from the tree giving off a dim turquoise light. Along with the river it reflects a nice backlighting effect making the crown's bottom appear in a dark dim green-turqouise shade. Up ahead there's a tree growing over the small river serving as a bridge towards said tree and further down the path the smoke of fires can be seen as there appears to be a variety of smaller tents set up in the area.

Diz, taking notice of the great blue fruits hanging from the great tree, persuades Valanthe and Laurentius to shoot it down. They succeed but Val and Lauren take 2 psychic damage each as they hear the ear-piercing whale-like screech in the depths of their mind. Diz almost getting hit by the humongous fruit as it lands while Rodent quickly dodged out of the way.

Diz gathers the fluid within the fruit, also known as a seed of life, into 3 bottles turning them into potions of intoxicated health (1d4+2 healing). It is a highly intoxicating drink for those that hasn't lived for at least 200 years.

Diz also fills a bottle with the turquoise fireflies that live within the hidden grove.

Before leaving to check the great tree, Laurentius drinks some of the fruit getting highly intoxicated(as they didn't know the effects before after he drank it).

As they approach the Great tree of Life they notice that inside, the roots are holding up the tree like curved pilars and there are small bugs flying around, they give off a dim, soft blue glow. There's a large stump-like table in the middle of the area beneath the Tree and at the head of it an elf stands tall. Her skin is a bit on the cooler side but she's very pale with a waxing moon crescent tattoo curving its way around her face. Her hair is a striking silvery white color as she emits a wise and highly spiritual aura.

This is Luminara Moonbrooke, the Leader 167th leader and Archdruid of the Moon Circle. Loomi is introduced as Loomi Oakenpaw the 467th leader and Archdruid of the Land Circle. Both of them are one of the eight leader's of Nature's Union. As the party explain their position, she explains her own. She helps sober up Laurentius with a Waterskin of Sobriety. Diz takes great notice of the flask and thinks of it as some type of "Antidote" for the intoxicating effect of the potion of Intoxicated Health. He asks to have it and is rejected. However they are granted lodging in the camp and food is also provided for them as they have a long night of rest ahead of them.

In the night, Diz's evil shenanigans commences with the aid of Rodent. Rodent is tasked with poisoning the river with a "Demonic Digestive Infestation" which causes the affected target to vomit out anything they eat within the next 12 hours. Rodent manages to achieve his task with close mishaps.

Diz himself tries to steal some of that "Antidote" as he calls it. He fails to be sneaky by stepping on a twig, getting caught in action. However he manages to get along quite well with guard that woke up and does acquire 2 potions filled with the Beansauce of Sobriety in the end.

The potion of sobriety is like flat black coffee, but as soon as one has sobered up one feels like vomiting if they imbibe more than a necessary amount.

After completing their own missions they go to sleep. Rodent and Diz shares a tent. Valanthe and Azakyn share a tent. Laurentius has a tent all to himself.

In the middle of the night, Diz is awoken by the sudden rumbling in the ground. He stands up confused before the place where his head was laying before gets impaled by a blighted root. There is a commotion outside and he is reassured by one of the druids on night watch. He challenges fate yet again by breaking of the tip of the blighted root. As he turns to leave the root bumps him in the back, pushing him a bit forward. Looking back at the de-spikefied root it gains a spurt of growth, yet again growing razor sharp and incredibly close to impale his face.

The morrow after Luminara provides a bit more exposition, also introducing Loomi as the current leader of the Land Circle. She tells Laurentius about the leader of the circle of spores, Laucian Gemfrond. She hands them a moonstone that will heal Ni'vala. Before entering the temple Laurentius kisses her. He seems to not be the best kisser as it leaves Luminara, generally uncomfortable. She pushes him away as he goes in for a second one and leaves promptly together with Loomi and Carrion.

Before entering the temple Diz tries to mix the blighted twig with the Potion of Intoxicated Health. At first it remains dormant. Then it quickly and violently sprouts to life, breaking the container and rooting the two nearest targets, Rodent and Diz. With the help of Laurentius, Rodent is freed, with the help of Azakyn, Diz is freed. With a quick eldritch blast from Valanthe the twig creature is killed before it can turn into something bigger and worse. It is reduced to ash. The Party now approaches the temple and begins to climb their way up to the top where the actual entrance is. The temple is aztec in style from the outside and at the top there's a staircase leading down into the temple. Water can be seen at the bottom of the spiralling stairs.

## 2021-06-19 Session Two: The Corrupted Temple

The party reaches the bottom of the stairs and walk through a doorway. They're in an unlit room, in the darkness something can bee seen glimmering in the middle of it but skittering also echoes off the walls of the room. The party fights a rat swarm, much to Rodent's dismay as he refuses to kill them. The glimmering object in the middle of the room turns out to be a hand mirror. There doesn't seem to be anything special about it as they see their reflections. As the party picks up the hand mirror, two braziers light up in the room, they are on the sides of the entrance. It's a normal fire flame, red, orange, yellow, the typical color of fire.

The Room now appears dimly lit and two large mirrors can be seen on either side of what was apparently an altar of sorts in the middle of the room. Both the mirrors have a set of braziers on either side just like the entrance way, though the 4 newly seen braizers remain unlit and thus the party can't see what's on the far end of the room. With a 'clunk' noise the mechanisms of the temple can be heard. The altar moves upwards to reveal a hollowing with new various objects. 2 feet or so in front of the altar stands a small epitaph and behind the altar the form of a creature can be seen sitting completely still behind the altar.

Checking the mirrors they seem to be hard-surface but also unbreakable.

Taking a closer look the creature seems to be a ginormous panther with a unicorn horn and the back legs of a horse. It's tail a weird mix between the two. It's a stone state, which explains why it never moved.

With Valanthe finding out that by looking at the epitaph through the mirror she can see glowing blue text that is written in an older form of elvish. To their luck, she knows how to read it from past studies and roughly translates the text to:

"Return them to their own, to their rightful home. With Brazier's lit and the cat's fit, the true path shall be revealed."

The objects on the altar are

* the antler of a growing reindeer,
* the shell of a sea turtle,
* a spiraling horn that of a unicorn would have on its head and
* a small bird skull.

What seemed to be a unicorn horn turned out to be a turitella shell, a seashell.

With the help of the hand mirror by looking at the objects through it they seem to emit a magical aura of different colors, 2 blue and 2 white. After investigating the surroundings for quite some time, they put the items in the braziers next to the mirrors. As they do the braziers flare up 2 of them in the blue color and the other 2 in white.

Looking at the roof it is covered by a large circular mural of three mythical beings chasing eachother. On the left side is a beast with the features of a horse mixed with a sea serpent, it yanks on the horse tail of what looks to be a hippogryph with the antlers of an elk, on the right side of the room. The hippogryphs beak is reaching for something but due to the darkness of the far end of the room it's impossible to make out anything more.

Upon further discussion and planning the party checks the mirrors and upon lightly tapping the surface it ripples like liquid after the touch. Placing their head on the other side reveals it to be another room. Upon revealing the rooms Laurentius has become engulfed in note taking of the architechture, he takes extensive notes of all the little details for his studies.

Diz is old and tired and decides to sit out while letting Valanthe and Azakyn handle these measly puzzles, he convinces rodent to sit out in the main room with him as Azakyn and Valanthe enters the blue brazier's mirror.

They enter the next room and the stone in the room is tinted blue. Just like the last room there are multiple mirrors and braziers along the walls. The braziers on the sides of the entrance are blue and the rest of the braziers remains unlit. On the roof of the room is the creature that looked like a sea serpent mixed with a horse. Valanthe checks the mirror which makes ripples but she can't push her hand through, they seem to be trapped on this side of the mirror now.

In this room there's a statue of what seems to be a triton female. She holds a vase as if she was pouring it over her chest and water continuously runs down the statue, continuing down to flow into four different holes in the corner of the room. On the floor lies cuffing chains, two shorter, two longer ones. They're open. There's an epitaph in front of them that seems to say something in olden elvish. Azakyn notices something sticking out of the wall on the far left side as Valanthe begins to translate the text on the epitaph, when looking closer it's 6 rocks in a row with some symbols. Upon clicking it, it reveals a letter in the common tongue.

Valanthe translates the light blue text, reading it aloud for Azakyn to hear: "A better time, before the bad. Return to the present, before she went mad."

The moment she finished reading it the room begins to rumble. Stone plates can be heard scraping against each other as water begins to rapidly pour in from the ceiling, the water level is steadily rising. Looking back at the epitaph, it shows some glowing foreign symbols. By every second that goes by one of the four unknown symbols shifts like a countdown.

Azakyn would remain unaffected by the water filling with room but Valanthe would not to well. Wading through the water the two look for more of the stone plates that Azakyn found. Investigating the chains on the ground, there's scribbles on them in a foreign language the same symbols are the ones found on the stone plates which seems to be diffferent parts of the alphabet of said language. After finding the right corresponding letters they manage to disern what it says on the chains through guessing with their progress being:

* R\_\_\_t Arm
* Le\_T Wr\_st
* Le\_t Le\_
* R\_\_\_t Ankle

As Azakyn closes the last cuff around the statue's Wrist, the statue makes a rumbling sound. The noise of rocks scraping against each other, much like before, is heard again and the water flows out of the room through the four holes in the corners. Suddenly the vase the statue was holding is dropped and the statue seems to look at it's cuffed arms. Tears begin to stream down the statue's cheeks, murky, old and tainted dark water begins to flow. She grabs her head and falls down to her knees, letting out an ear piercing cry. The last thing Azakyn and Valanthe hears is a hurt whisper that almost seems to echo around the room. It is spoken in primordial but Azakyn understands it clearly as day.

***"I was foolish to trust you."***

Then the statue goes back to being dormant, yet its tears continue to flow. on the right side of the room, one of the mirrors braziers light up, it's the color of a normal flame. There's another sudden rush of water, this time it's not coming from the roof. the holes in the corners fill up. there's four object floating, magically, on the different water surfaces.

* A tooth, a big one, it's the length of two of the average human's hand.
* a pristine green feather, it floats gently upon the water.
* an eye, looks to be a fish eye.
* a black talon, very sharp.

Using the mirror Valanthe picks up the large tooth that was glowing with a green aura. She also puts the other items to the corresponding braziers in the room, then they enter the white flame mirror where they surprisingly meet back up with Diz, Rodent and Laurentius. Apparently Diz had grown tired of doing nothing as well and thus decided to enter this room with the rest of the party. Azakyn and Valanthe tells relay what happened in the sea room. Laurentius seems incredibly intrigued and wants to study the other room but only after taking detailed notes of Valanthe and Azakyn's story of the small adventure as well as the room they're currently in.

Just as they had entered the room there was a touch of cool in the air. It was a slight bit colder than the other rooms. The walls in this room was also a lighter, almost white color. Checking the mirrors, they can still leave as it seems. This room also hold a statue, this one of a woman in owl-like drapes. In front of it is a medium sized pedestal. Laurentius tells them that the statue in the middle seems to be supposed to resemble Eilynwrick, the Chaperone of Answers. A god. Though she's a pretty obscure god and thus he doesn't have much more to tell them than that and that she's a god of Death and Knowledge. An epitaph stands in front of the pedestal as well. Valanthe translates it roughly to:

"Who am I, if not a prisoner of fate."

Looking around the room 3 objects are found. A peculiar winged scepter with an orb on top, a tome and a small wooden figurine of an owl with a scroll. Laurentius provides the knowledge that the tome might be the legendary Tome of Answers which is said to hold all the answers in the world. It's held closed with a red binding. Diz tries to open the sealed tome to no avail and thus coerces Rodent to try and open it with a crowbar, Rodent obliges and tries before the book starts to mutate into some type of mimic, biting onto the crowbar and with great force throws it aside.

Fighting ensues, Valanthe misses and eldritch blast, rodent defends himself, pulling out a second crowbar. Diz tries to gather the books attention by threatheningly holding an acid flask above it, he does catch its attention but as he pours the acid into the books mouth it consumes it with a burp. That acid was apparently pretty yummy to the book. It attacks rodent first and rodent swings the book into the wall, Azakyn calls out for rodent to duck and then throws a loose floor tile at the book. The book becomes dormant. With the battle concluded Diz places the scepter and figurine on the altar, he looks expectantly at Azakyn who doesn't seem to get what he wants and instead he looks over to Valanthe. Rodent tries to burn the book and after having been growled at for coming close he decides it better to back away. Valanthe approaches the book to get growled at as well but then she gently picked up the book and placed it on the pedestal. As all the items have been placed on the platform, the statue makes a rumbling sound. It stands still except for its head which tilts down to look at the party. A moment of silence passes and as Diz is about to speak a voice passes through the room. "Do you believe in gods?" It pauses for a moment before it continues. "If you don't I cannot say I blame you, I thought so too once." The statue sits down on its knees and turns its head back up again. "Fare thee well... until next time." As her sentence ends, the scepted begins to move on its own and crashes through the statue. The statue crumbles to dust and flows into the scepter that turns to stone before it falls to the floor breaking into pieces. The other objects seems to have also turned to stone. From the ground, four stone pillars rise, each with different objects.

* A white paw, like that of a big cat.
* a Luminous scale of a fish
* The fin of a shark
* a foggy bottle. It's almost like a little cloud is trapped in it. It is sealed with a white label.

Valanthe checks it yet again with the mirror and then picks up the big cat paw. They head back to the entrance room. Valanthe places the tooth and the paw in the braziers on the farthest side of the room and they light up with a green flame. Taking a second look at the statue its eye sockets seems particularly empty.

## 2021-07-23 Session Three: The Corrupted Ni'vala

The Party begun in the Forest room. Rodent tries to climb the statue but quickly slides down. They try their best to solve the puzzle but doesn't figure it out. Diz calls upon wisdom from his patron through his book of Shadow. He offers her a vibrant red apple, one of Rodent's rations. The ritual, he sits on his knees on the floor with the book of shadows open in front of him. He holds the apple with both of his hands over the book, placing them gently on it before using the decompose spell on it. The Apple rots away and stain the book's pages. After the whole apple and its stain have been absorbed into the book a red, shadowy misty figure appears, on its red throne next to the great shadow of a huge beast of sorts. "What do you want?" The Lich queen asks. "Please, o great Lich queen, Help us with the puzzle in this room great lich queen." The Lich queen proceeds and borrows Diz's body for a faint moment. A searing pain starts behind his eyes, as he closes his eyes in pain tears of blood begin to flow and as he opens them again he loses control of his body. His vision turns red and so does his eyes. Diz comes to a stand still looking around the room, studying it. Then he looks down and with a blink the presence of the Lich Queen is gone from his body. The vague shape of her in the book speaks again. "Three shots mirrored, together. Copy the statue in the face of danger." She states, disappearing. The Party of numb-skulls continue to not understand what they are supposed to do, and out of frustration the visage of the Lich queen appears from the book again, vibrating. "Since You're all such incompetent fools, why don't you be the apes you are and imitate the statue as the arrows come for you?" The party finally gets it and they mirror the statue's movements 3 times, the pouches falls down with the green orbs of sight.

Before they proceed into the next room, Diz unleashes cancer upon Rodent. Rodents body promptly goes into shock from the sudden growth of prostate cancer manifesting writhing less then a minute and he has a heart attack. Miraculously with the help of a CPR and Spare the Dying mix, Diz manages to save Rodent from the brink of death, though he retains the cancer.

They go back to the main room and take a long rest due to being fatigue. Then they proceed to place the orbs in the statue's eyes revealing the path deeper into the dungeon. They reach the Boss area, Ni'vala's Den.

A cut-scene plays,

***"Walking further down into the tunnel you can feel how the air around you changes and the tunnel starts to feel more like an underground cave than a temple. You walk for a minute or so until you come out into a glade, somehow there’s a night sky and a full moon. Corrupted trees and roots spread around the area. As you continue in you can see a small waterfall flowing into a shallow pond with muddled water further up ahead and in the pond rests a phantasmal beast in white fur, with green eyes, the hind legs of a black horse and what seems to be a curved unicorn horn sticking out of its forehead. It can only be perceived to be, the spirit of the forest, Meilikki’s mount, Ni’vala. In front of her there’s a shadowy, hooded, figure. The beast looks tired and beaten, it has multiple cuts on its body making it almost look like a white tiger. It growls, lowly and aggressively towards the shadowy figure. The shadowy figure does some hand motions to his left and as if out of nowhere, a Night-black steed with unkempt fire for a mane and tail appears as out of thin air. The shadowy figure holds a dark orb in its other hand before piercing it on Ni’vala’s horn, the beast lets out a cry of pain, slumping down in the water pool. The shimmering aura around it grows dull, and a dark cloud of smoke spreads out and seems to try and wrap around the beasts limbs. The hooded figure seems to create a dimension door up in the air and mounts up on the steed, it leaves seared hoof marks in the dirt before it leaps into the air, galloping low over the trees the hooded figure seems to grab a magical artefact in the form of a cape out of the leaves before the hooves set them aflame. The figure disappears into the dimension door." -Read by me, The DM. LOL***

and the fight begins.

They are first entangled with Ni'vala's roar, commanding the tree's branches to hold them. Laurentius throws a couple of fire balls, rodent shoots some arrows and throws some knives, Valanthe casts some eldritch blasts, Diz misses most of his spells. The fire runs down the vines holding them and rodent is lit on fire. Laurentius, Rodent and Valanthe, who makes the final blow, force the orb out of the beast. They then argue whether or not they shall slay the beast for its magical properties or not. Diz tries to coerce Rodent into killing the beast in order to cure his cancer, even though Diz has already collected one of the tears from the beast, albeit unwilling tears. The beast looks at rodent pleadingly and then Valanthe cuts in, thinking its wrong to kill the beast. Diz and Val begins to argue. Diz almost convinces Rodent again by saying that it's the beast or Rodent. Rodent walks around the beast, taking a steady aim at the beast's lungs. The beast eyes rodent again, before closing it's eyes expecting that rodent has made his choice. Just as rodent is about to release the arrow, Valanthe casts eldritch blast but as she does Diz grab her arm, making her aim on the arrow instead move to the bow which flies away from rodents hands. Rodent looks over to the two who are arguing loudly, he notices the small moonstone on the ground next to Valanthe and throws himself after it before placing it on the beasts nose bridge. The beast is promptly healed of all its wounds, and grants the party various boons on either a weapon or an armour piece. She also lets Valanthe pet her and she willingly fells a tear as a thank you to rodent for saving her. He is now in possession of "Silver Pendant of Ni'vala's Tear". Also Rodent asks for Laurentius help with writing a note. Then he runs off saying he wants to find a rat. He comes back saying that he couldn't find one.

## 2021-08-14 Session Four(A, B and C: Quartiqus Sessions): Kurtosis, The School Bully

After you left the temple Diz were taken as a suspect for the river incident. He reassured you all to continue and that he'll meet up with you later. The rest of you were safely escorted back to Kar'ael, the town where you all entered the twisting forest to begin with, and from there you rested, communicated with the informant, "The Commissioner", who sent each of you 100g for managing to get the two druid circles good side. He tells you that he is preparing another mission for you if you're interested but that he'll need some time. This left you all, except Diz, with downtime to do a bit of whatever you want though it just so happens that Bobius has received an urgent message about rent. From Kar'ael as you travel to Brohut, you go past the Golden plains and in the distance you could see the smokes from the tabaxian tribes' bonfires. From Brohut you travel over the stone bridge where you all first met Azakyn. Then, you arrive at Riversend to continue the campaign. Rodent was also surprisingly silent during the trip to Riversend.

Aula Shaul met with Laurentius when he arrived home, she sought his aid in taking down their old school bully Kurtosis.

Rodent, Aula and Laurentius(Boobius) set off on this adventure as Diz had been taken as a suspect for the poisoned river accident and Valanthe had politely declined as she said she had a very important letter to deal with. Valanthe stayed in Laurentius apartment during their absence.

The ones who went after Kurtosis met various figures in the pocket dimension that Kurtosis had created in-between the passageway between Riversend and Arcona. Demiburt a wizard who was studying the abyss, Amira who was from the college of Lore, studying the Lyrium Lazuli which were having a magical effect on a small cavern pond, Bertrud an opposing brown-haired mage working for Kurtosis and Stihfe a masked mage who did the same but who met a bitter end. With a crystal staff they disintegrated what seemed to be a crystal wyvern and then they met Edgart who served Kurtosis for a small while before Kurtosis met his... Embarrassing end. Grease into gust, into a lava pit.

During this adventure, Rodent also picked up 3 rats, where 1 died and was resurrected receiving horns upon resurrection. Tetch, as Rodent named her, now very much resembles what Rodent has on earlier occasions referred to as "The Horned Rat". So now that he has the horned rat in his hands the others may or may not be curious what his next plans are.

## 2021-11-21st and 22nd Session Five & Six: The Journey to Mondron

The party met up with Caleb an underpaid policeman who's pretty tired of his job. Rodent wanted to see dwarves and the party obliged. They're are taking a carriage towards Mondron the next morning.

In the downtime between the following occurs:

* Valanthe sneaks after and observes a sketchy exchange in which Rodent is involved.
* Laurentius studied the Chaos Bolt spell.
* Azakyn and Diz took a trip to the public bathhouse where Diz offered Azakyn some alcohol and she became incredibly intoxicated. The situation was resolved with the help of
* Caleb was writing a report.

In Thordrend they come across a bone devil in the evening who now threatens the party. During the battle Caleb round up people and Azakyn tries to quell the fire that has broken out during the fight. Rodent consistently aims for the enemy, Valanthe is helping out as much as she can, Diz looks to the lich queen for an alternate solution to the fight trying to heal the monster's wings. The party handles it after a long battle.

Acquired rewards and goods:

* Laurentius gets a Superior Spellorb: Greater Darkness
* Diz is left with the notes of F.J.Eremiah. Only Diz knows the information that the notes contained. He asks the Village elder about Eremiah during the evening who turns out to be his grandfather. F.J Eremiah seems to have left the village 2 years back when the Bone Devil first started appearing. Eremiah was looking for the Dragonseer’s Tomb.
* Azakyn receives a Map as a reward from the people, she also acquired some dried seaweed.
* Rodent gets a palm pistol which he is greatly disappointed with.
* Caleb got free drinks all night as well as three huge steaks from the butcher for free.
* Diz later on got some Cat-thyme, Dandlions and Earth-Sprouts from the local apothecary.

## 2022-01-08 Session Seven: Orphanages and Shepherds

From Thordrend the party travels through Greenville on their way to Stonehum. While in Greenville the following happened:

* Laurentius learned Mage Hand from a shepherd that was using it to pet sheep.
* Valanthe bought a sheep from said shepherd.
* Diz found and looked through feces for potion making purposes...

The morning after Azakyn had developed a cough. Diz identified it as Sewer Plague and tried to concoct an antidote to it on the carriage ride to Stonehum. It was a chaotic time in the carriage as Rodent tried the potion thinking it might taste good, however multiple people almost threw up from the stench. In the end Azakyn drank it and it had yet to see any effects.

They arrive in Stonehum in the evening. There was a brief conversation with a dwarf that was worried for his wife, who was out working in the forest. Azakyn walks ahead and meets an incredibly old woman with a severe case of humpback, she's fairly warty as well with an unsymmetrical underbite. As the rest of the party continues to the center of the village the old woman dismisses Azakyns friendly waves and smile. The old woman rushes to the center. The old woman approaches Diz making him incredibly uncomfortable as she talks about missing him and calling him 'my love'.

Diz remembers her as the well-known nutcase of the village, Ratkva.

He gives her a potion which he tells her to drink slowly somewhere private but as he says that she quickly gulps it down without question. She looks at him happily, blinking once, unsynchronized... Then she glances over to Rodent as Azakyn comes to stand next to him. She screeches, "THE PROPHECY!!" Before she runs off towards her home. Very distressed to say the least. Rodent goes off looking for a blacksmith to make him a big gun.

They visit Diz's house on the north eastern edge of town. Laurentius snoops around in the bedroom, finding a hand mirror, a framed portrait facing down on the night stand. In the closet he also finds clothes that are a different size from Diz and also seem out of character of him to wear.

* Laurentius puts the clothing piece away in his bag in what he thought as a sneaky manner.

The party goes back to stay at the inn apart from Diz who stays in his own home. As they walk past the reception they notice two figures at a table who quickly fall silent upon their entry. One, A man clad in dark blue drapes with a black hooded cloak, dark skin escaping the arms with bracelets and some type of tattoos on his hands. The other a young freckled boy, halfling or dwarven, hard to tell because of the age, wearing a cap. Valanthe gets a solo room, where mysterious loud noises come from, sound leaking in to the next room where Laurentius and Caleb stay. Azakyn gets a solo room as well as Rodent seems to be gone, none of his rats are to be seen either.

The morning after Azakyn has recovered from the sewer plague with the help of Diz's potion as it gave her advantage on the Constitution Save. Diz skips breakfast to check on Ratkva stealthily with gaseous form. She seems completely unaffected by the potion he gave her earlier, he takes notice of a peculiar necklace she's wearing. A golden chain with a stone that resembles an arm that holds a ring connected to a heart with a face on either halfs of it. The rest of the party eats breakfast and as the rest leave the Inn, there's a rumbling in the ground, a horde of rabbits runs into the village and as they embrace loved ones they turn into dwarves. The party learns of a shepherd in the woods who is terrorizing and interrupting the towns work.

There's a quick intermission by the Postman:

* Diz recieved a short note. Diz also sent a letter to the scroll & scribes to tell the fish about Azakyn's Achievements.
* Laurentius recieved a pretty normal sized letter.
* Caleb recieved a pouch with 100g with a note that said "Thanks for cleaning up my mess. --F.J Eremiah". Caleb also sent some reports.
* Azakyn recieved a small shell later brought by Rocky, it was from her grandfather and she replied.
* Valanthe has yet to recieve anything...

As the mailman dashes off they hear 2 children fighting over a humming stone. They boy bites back with attitude when talked to and the girl scurried off with the stone as they caught what seems to be her brother. The party later approaches the burgomaster to learn why the dwarves are cutting down the forest which they learn is because of lack for homes as the population is increasing. The Burgomaster is a bearded dwarven woman who was clad in steel armor. The idea is sparked to create an orphanage, as well as to make candy.

The party decides to split up into two groups. Azakyn and Diz being the ones to work on the orphanage and candy idea while Valanthe, Caleb and Laurentius sort out the issue about the Shepherd.

Diz & Azakyn

Diz and Azakyn works on the candy and orphanage idea. First they go to the inn to buy Moonshine, Azakyn successfully trades her trident for 10 barrels of Moonshine. She carried 6 out of 10 barrels back to Diz’s home the rest was brought with the help of another person who had a wagon and Diz’s charismatic skills. Diz hands Azakyn his last 7 gold to buy ingredients for making candy, she spends it on frostulips and Izelea’s as well as flour worth 4 gold, but gives the shopkeep all 7. Azakyn makes friends with a Lumberjack dwarf who is a bit insecure about his masculinity as well as his ego. while becoming good friends with him she follows him to his secret lumber spot where she retrieves sticks and wood as well as some frosted leaves. They are in the works of creating candy. While Azakyn is grocery shopping diz calls the lich queen using the framed portrait. The lich queen happily answers at the emotional value of the item. They had an interesting conversation to say the least.

Caleb, Valanthe & Laurentius

Caleb, Valanthe & Laurentius approaches the Hwitwood and finds the shepherd. They find out that it is a sacred burial ground of a great Druid who seems to have been Irion Ulfbane’s master. The sheperd, Irion Ulfbane told them that the Hwitwood has since long ago belonged to the shepherd circle. Unwilling to let the dwarves cut down the holy woods around Lake Everclear Caleb proposes a negotiation to help Irion with another issue he mentioned about invading vermin who seems to be mindlessly attacking. As Caleb talks about regrouping with the dwarves and creating a force to overrun the vermin with they are interrupted by the vermin. They see one with a blue tail, green tail and a normal flesh colored tail, those being twice the human size. It was hard to tell what the last one had. They fight of the rats with the help of Irion and his wolves. He decides to put his trust in them after seeing them in action.

## 2022-01-19 Session Eight: Preparing for the Vermin

Quick re-cap: The party prepped for an oncoming battle.

Caleb, Valanthe & Laurentius returned to the inn. Laurentius quickly leaves for his room as he's fallen ill due to magic exertion and infected wounds, forcing him to rest for a while. Rodent is still nowhere to be seen, but at the counter there's a garden gnome arguing with the innkeeper. He seems angry about some party of 4 people that has taken up all three rooms (Because Diz originally slept in his own house and Azakyn and Valanthe had separate rooms). Diz and Azakyn successfully creating 100 frostmint lollipops and caramels. As they're heading to the woods they notice the door to the inn ajar and enter to meet back up with their party. Azakyn recognizes one of the patrons who's drinking by the tables as the Lumberjack who she befriended. The party convinces the Lumberjacks to aid them in the battle against the badgers. Diz asked where to find more people that may be willing to fight with them. They're told of Stonehums hunters and rangers. They gather behind the inn at sunrise to head into the forest. Azakyn drank the night away with her lumberjack buddy, Dworic.

The morning after Diz drags Valanthe along to help him intimidate the rangers into doing his bidding. Valanthe pretended to walk by with her duck billy when Diz pretended to cast a spell that turned billy into an imp, Billy shifted back into his original form and the rangers were quickly intimidated by Diz's display of magical prowess. One of them was even scared shitless. Diz later on ordered them to stand outside Caleb's room. Caleb wakes up and lightly checks in with Laurentius who promptly tells them they'll have to do without him for today as well as good luck with the rat-badgers. He quickly falls asleep again and Caleb leaves the room met with 6 pairs of eyes and even more down the hall. Caleb continues to try and get across the point that they can't burn the forest because it is a sanctuary of sorts. They are interrupted by the door of the inn slamming open. In steps a dwarf with a peg-leg and an eye-patch and greying light copper braids. He calls himself commander of the Stonehum rangers. Diz continuously provokes him before he's grabbed by the beard to make proper eye contact with Rangrim. He threathens to punch Diz's face with the back of his gun should he continue. Caleb steps in to break up the commotion. It ends with Caleb punching Diz and Rangrim having a hearty laugh at the group. They negotiate the help of the rangers. Rangrim leaves with the rangers to go over the plans with the burgomaster before re-grouping with the rest at the plains of the southern forest frontier. Diz leaves to prepare and find a way to get rid of burn marks and scars, he's cooped up in his house.

The rest of the party goes to meet with Irion Ulfbane to report how the situation looks. When they first approches he says. "*Asathalfinare*, a Plane-dweller? Haven't your kind brought us enough suffering as is?" As he looks to Azakyn who confused asks what he means to which he responds that Tritons on land is an ill-omen.

They go over the plan with Irion and he begins to lead the party to the border of the southern woods. On the way there, he small talks with Valanthe refering to her as "*Rua*". She reminded him of someone his master knew. When she asked who he said it doesn't matter.

They reach the southern slopes and plains, it has a few stray trees here and there but overall looks like a good spot to execute their plan in order to thwart the next tide of Vermin.

## 2022-02-04 Session Nine: Battle on Panina Hills

As you reached the end of the forest, you came out into a clear open space. As far south as you could see the Panina hills rolled on and on but in the area you stayed there’s some trees, some bigger rocks and whatnot. At a distance you saw smoke coming from campfires out in the field and as you approached you recognized it as the lumberjacks and the rangers that the party had spoken to before. There were some typical riding boars and two dwarven warboar chilling by a tree with an overseeing dwarf next to them, seemingly half-awake.

The scalemailed dwarven lady from before walked up to Irion who awkwardly moved his head back a bit. ”I presume yer the one who has turned my lumberjacks into critters these last weeks?” She stretched out a hand to shake his. “Well go on then, I’m not as uncooperative as ye think!” Irion awkwardly shaked her hand. She continued “Audhild Strongheart, Nice to meet ya Master Shepherd.” Irion looked slightly sceptic for a moment but replied. “Likewise.” She nodded. “I suppose we’ve got some things to discuss then. The rest of you can prepare or rest, whatever suits ye better. You can ask my cousin Dalgal if ya needs something.” She walked over to the fire gesturing for Irion to follow and he did.

The Party spent most of their time setting up the trap they had planned, Dalgal helped them set up and Azakyn briefly greeted her lumberjack pal, Dworic.

Out of the forest a Ranger appeared. She stoped in front of the camp. She glanced over to Caleb and gave him an affirmative nod before reporting to Irion. The party overheared Irion and the ranger’s conversation. The Ranger mentioned something about a nest. To which Irion responded with something about a mapper. The Ranger answered with a name, "Einkil". Something more was said and the mood dropped severely before Irion quickly turned to the forest, throwing himself into the form of a giant wolf. He seemed to be running as fast as he could only coming to a slight stop as a horn blared in the distance. The boar overseer had his throat slit in a matter of seconds after the horn was heard, a blacktail ran out from the shadows to regroup with the rest of its vermin companions. Irion looked back at everyone one last time before he continued further into the forest.

The ground shaked as rats twice if not thrice the size of a regular humanoids appeared. “PREPARE FOR BATTLE!” Audhild called as she hopped onto a warboar. The dwarves seemed to fall into some sort of formation. The ranger who stayed behind seemed intent on helping the dwarves in this battle as well.

Lines or rats formed up on the western side of the field. A wider fleshtailed rat roared “SNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA” There were 3 more fleshtailed rats approaching the party and on the bigger rats there were smaller rats in black linen robes. Further away there were rats with crossbows and in the shadows hides rats with knives aplenty.

Diz grabbed one of the warboars and rode it into battle.

As one of the hulking rats entered the trap, Mylo fired a shot to release it! The fleshtailed rat struggled together with its smaller companion as they became charred alive. Another fleshtailed rat was about to walk into the trap and the rat on top had desperately tries to steer it away with no success, the huge rat had mindlessly wandered into the flames before it registered the pain of the flames. Upon noticing and trying to leave, it is held back by an arrow fired by Caleb. Roots spread from the arrow, ensnaring the huge rat and it fell together with its black-robed companion.

* Azakyn vigorously smashed the skulls of various rats, heroically making her way to her teammates
* Caleb rooted the rats in the trap and began tanking a lot of hits from the fleshtails.
* Diz tried to fight the black-robed rat head-on by miraculously managing to climbing up on a fleshtail after abandoning the warboar.
* Valanthe and Billy took cover around a bigger, solitary tree while they tried to aid Caleb in his fight against the fleshtails.
* Mylo bombarded the enemy with extreme precision from the back lines on the opposite side of the field.

Another Fleshtailed rat and more smaller ones joined the fray, they continued their fight against the dwarves. As they did, wolves came from the forest and joined to battle at their side. The dwarves started to thin out the smaller rats on their side but then a Fleshtailed rat with an Ink coloured tip, mangy and thin but just as tall as the others, closer to size to the wide one, screeched “KRESKRAAAAAAAAAAAA” as it charged the dwarves on all four. Some of the dwarves were sent flying as the rat flailed around its claw-like hands. Audhild seemed to be preparing a spell, she took a deep breath as steam started to leak from her armor. She uttered the spell and as she breathed out the entire area around her became enveloped in a benevolent mist, you could see the dwarves and rangers that were fighting, seemingly revitalized, even the dwarves that had been flung away, rose back up and picked up their arms ready to fight again. She lit up like a beacon of hope for them.

On the party’s side of the fight it started to look dire.

* Caleb got charged by a fleshtail and in the process he was knocked into the trees.
* Diz tried to communicate with the rats who only seemed to have one word on their mind, “Kill”. Their eyes were void of conation. However, deep down somewhere clouded in their eyes were fear. Right after an arrow had been placed between its eyes, no doubt by the skillful Caleb.
* The fleshtail that Diz stood upon roared as it charged Caleb knocking him into the trees yet again. Caleb spit up blood.
* Valanthe tried to grab the attention of the first fleshtail with her attacks.
* Azakyn tried to regroup with them after having handled a robed one and a daggerdancer.
* Mylo shoot another bombardment to aid them.
* Diz managed to steer away one of the fleshtails from Caleb but in the process it goes into a rampant rage.

As the other fleshtail was about to slam down on Caleb to knock him out for good, out of thin air the evening sunrays reflect on a mirror-like surface. As if something had just materialized from another realm it appeared. Bronze scales shone like gold in the evening sunlight. A young dragon appeared loudly roaring out a hiss at the fleshtailed rat. It fought alongside the party as the fight finished up. Just as the battle concludes it is ushered away, the dragon had disappeared just like it originally appeared.

There are a lot of questions to be had...

## 2022-05-20 Session Ten: A Plague Doctor, Arrival in Dethromar & the Bathhouse

The battlefield is a mess, the smell of crisp, ashen rat flesh fills the air. The many corpses spread out over the Panina plains. The big ones and the 2 huge ones, lie in a pool of their own blood. Everyone is exhausted from the battle.

* Caleb spots a giant owl in one of the trees.

Diz asks Caleb if the dragon was his. “Yes, I’m sorry but I’ve been keeping Pringle a secret.” “His name is Pringle?” “Yes.” Diz’s eyebrows fly up in pleasant surprise and then he moves on. A rat approaches the party. At first they tense but as he gets closer they notice a smaller rat in his arms. It must be Rodent. Rodent reconvenes with the party, raving about “The Bad man!” “He did something to the Horned one!” The Party starts to question Rodent. “Um, Secrets I have kept..” Rodent says. He tells the party he was sent on a mission to spy on them by the bad man and collect some specific items. Rodent believes the items are something that the bad man is weak to hence he thinks they should continue to collect the said items. He convinces the party to follow him and leads them to the south-western passage.

There they find an abandoned mine shaft and delve deeper into it with the help of Diz’s Light spell. They come across a sentry rat. After an awkward pause, it tries to scurry off. They shot it before killing it as a group of 6 other rats approaches. The party pushes Rodent forward with a torch and the 6 rats approach him in synchronized footsteps. They walk past him mindlessly, trampling the body of the sentry rat.

* Diz collects the sentry rats Black tail
* Rodent collects 6 daggers off of it.

Rodent fumbles with his explanation and so the party begins to question if this is a good idea since they have yet to rest.

Because of the high sealing of the cave the party decides it best for Diz to scout on ahead with gaseous form. One of the two cavern like rooms are filled with robed rats, seemingly learning from another rat standing on a pedestal of rocks, in the other room there are 5 hulking rats and a lot of other smaller ones that train with daggers and crossbows. The supports to the openings of these two places seems weak. With teamwork and timing they manage to collapse the two openings. Dust falls from the ceiling but the main tunnel still stands. They take notice of a mine cart and that the ground seems to change into a darker, patterned stone flooring as they continue deeper.

A loud crackling boom sound comes from deeper down the tunnel, down a set of stairs. At the bottom of the stairs is an acid-damaged iron door. The party peeks in on a man in a black plague doctor’s mask who is seemingly consumed in writing something. Diz stepped in through the broken door. There’s a brief pause. Upon entering the room Diz can now see that the man’s gloved hands are stained in a dark red, same with his pale, old clothes. The colors seems to have faded and grown dull from all the blood and other fluids that the man's ‘work’ supposedly brings.

"Hello?" Diz greets him. The mask turns his way as the man stares at Diz for a moment, muttering. “Interesting.” Then he walks up to him and starts measuring him with the quill. When Diz begins to move to imitate him, the Masked man calls out in a slightly more aggressive tone, “DON’T. Move…” Diz furrows his eyebrows questioning him why and the man tells him that he might get hurt otherwise. The man seems very insistent that he has any rights he wants within the walls of the current room. Azakyn suddenly enters the room as well. The Man straightens up in marvel. “By the gods…” He quickly rushes up to measure her. “Is this the usual standard for your race? Are there more of you? You seem to be an exquisite specimen!” He raves as he measures. After moment of conversation he asks her “Would you mind if I… Possibly, oh you know.. Stuck a smaller tiny knife in you, for purely scientific purposes.” Azakyn replied with something about blood to which he responded “Why yes, I would love some of that too! Yes yes! Come over here, come over here.” He motions her over to one of the benches and pulls a syringe. “Hold still now, Just hold still…” Just before he manages to get any of Azakyns blood, Rodent pounces him with a knife to his throat. “Well this is quite the predicament.” The Man says fairly unfazed. He places his fingertips together. Peeking over his shoulder he notices Rodent. In an excited whisper he states. “The Intelligent one.” “What did you do to the horned one?!” Rodent threatens. “The horned one… Ah, The horned one! I simply tried to inject it with…. You know since the latest experiments hadn’t gone quite as expected, you know how evocation and necromancy spells don’t always mix that well I thought I would—” “AHHH Too many words! Head hurts!” Rodent interrupts. “Further more could you put down the knife since you are now a civilized being so that we could perchance talk?” The Man continues then Diz cuts in. “Are you evil?” “Evil? Hm.. I think…. it’s all a matter of perspective actually.” “Have you ever killed someone?” “Well I haven’t really ‘killed’ anyone. However the casualties seem to have piled up through the last year.” Rodent decides to slit the mans throat and the moment blood is let out he disappears in a black smoke. Left behind is a crumbling ashen scroll with black glowing incantations on it. Diz identifies it.

* It seems to be a Word of Recall Spell scroll that the masked man used.
* Diz harvested black arcane dust from the remains of the spell scroll.

After inspecting the room they find a letter next to the note the man had been scribbling on which seems to be a half finished reply.

**The letter reads:**

*“Dissector, Continue to divert their attention from the artefact. The warlock has her part under control in Shal’dar, the conversion should commence within the coming moons. Pyre is still looking for inscriptions in the abandoned monastery. Liaison continues to undermine the Iron Conglomerate. The dwarves are spread thin and the tunnel construction is halted. —Hadarai”*

**The Reply reads:**

*“Messenger, R0 Seems to have marvellously cultivated its mind! I will need to get my hands on it again though he just stabbed me and ran off with the new peculiar specimen you brought. I’ll have to return to—” The letter stops there with a big ink blot.*

Upon further looting the room:

* Diz finds 3 empty vials & a health potion
* Azakyn finds a Potion of Growth
* Rodent finds a Small Box of Untracable Dust
* Caleb finds 10 acid tipped arrows and packs down some of the things to make a med kit.

The Party decides to head back to Stonehum to rest since night has fallen.

When they reach the Inn they notice a carriage right outside and a familiar figure, Boobius stands before it. In the corner of his eyes he catches sight of the party. “Ah, splendid, you’re back. I was going to have the innkeeper leave you a message but I believe it better to do this in person after all." He turns to the party and straightens up. "I’ve been chosen to study under a magister in the Consulate of Arcona and thus I need to head back... I felt like I should thank you for the adventure and experiences you’ve brought me considering that I would’ve never gotten this opportunity to begin with if it wasn’t for you.” There's the hint of a soft smile in his expression. “I’d like to leave some things with you as thanks.”

* He looks at Diz, then at Rodent before turning to Diz again and gives him the **Enchanted Spell Orb: Deeper Darkness.** Then he walks over to Valanthe with a letter in his hand.

“Valanthe, may I ask you to remind me of your last name before I hand you this?” “Amastacia.” Valanthe responds after a brief moment of hesitation.

* Boobius nods firmly before entrusting Valanthe a letter.

”Aula sent me this but I think it’d be best for you to see it.”

Then he turns to Azakyn and Rodent.

* He hands Rodent the Silverplated Mask from when they fought against Kurtosis and
* he gives Azakyn the Bag of holding.

Lastly he turns to Caleb. “Sadly we didn’t get to know eachother that well constable Caleb but with nothing left to give I give you this.” He stretches out his hand for a handshake. “Should you ever require my aid and knowledge you need only message me.” He turns back towards the rest of the party. “I thank you again, friends and until our next meeting, I wish you well.” He gives a small bow before entering the carriage.

Before leaving for Dethromar Caleb visits the burgomaster in the morning. The party is granted free travel in Mondron as long as they travel from Stonehum and Caleb recieved 40 gold.

The party passes Ashville on their way to Dethromar. At the entrance of Dethromar, they are immediately met with multitudes of tall pillars that stand to support the roof and statues of dwarven historical figures. As the guards see the party approaching they stop them. “Yer not bringing that rat in here are ye? He’s gonna be bringing his entire horde with him!” Azakyn claims that Rodent is the party’s pet as she picks him up by the scruff. “He’s your pet??” The dwarven guard seems confused and grimaces before bluntly saying “Your pet is disgusting.” Azakyn tries to convice the guard that he won’t be causing trouble to which the guard replies, “You should put him on a leash.” Azakyn replies with “Eeeh, he seems easy enough to control.” to which Rodent screeches like the rat he is.

* Diz subtly gathers intel about how the situation looks with the rats as the guard tells him of the latest news that they are holding up the tunnel construction, they keep appearing from somewhere in the tunnel but there's no clue as to from where, seeing as the tunnel is currently a dead end.

He also goes on to ask if they remember who he is to which the guard responds with a quick, unbothered “Who are ye?” Afterwards Diz strikes up an unenthusiastic conversation with the guard trying to explain who they are and to convey some convoluded message that essentially sums up to “Where’s the Iron Conglomorate?” and “We’re brave heroes here to slay the rats.” The Guard responds “Well Trogin would be considered the leader of the Five.” to the first and “Right, Right and I’m the king of Dethromar.” Jokingly, not believing him to the second. He gives the direction to the Iron Conglomerate which seems to just be straight down the hall.

Entering the Living Quarters there is housings forming a little plaza and a fountain in the middle. More housings follow up against the walls all the way to the roof. On the pillars are Dwarven Runes that essentially reads: Mines(West), Great Hall(North), Snoozing Dragon Inn & Bathhouse.(East) There’s dwarves all around going about their daily lives.

Azakyn decides to strike up a conversation asking about gods while also gathering other intel. The Dwarven lady tells her about the all-father and that she's heard tell of a Forge god. The Dwarven lady doesn't seem to have any knowledge of how gods become gods or how to attain immortality.

* Azakyn learns that Trogin has a daughter and that his estate lies behind the Great dining hall. There’s usually 2 guards watching each doorway/passage and an estimate of 6 guards(if not more) per room.

When the lady asks Azakyn what she is Azakyn spreads her legend to which the lady feels inclined to applaud. She does seem quite genuinely excited however. "I can't wait to tell my little ones about this!"

* Azakyn learns that the rats have been lurking and attacking somewhere up in the mountains and that it’s very cold up there.

The party goes shopping for warmer clothes. They take notice of a large wolf outside the shop and upon entering as they wait for their turn at the counter the dwarf in front of them seems to be handing over some pelts before turning around accidentally bumping into Caleb. He grumbles loudly. “Ugh, Adventurer’s nowadays… Come on Ulv, let’s go.” “Jeez what’s his problem?” Caleb mutters. “Oh, that’s just Bengt, Bengt Ironforge. He supplies the finest of furs & leathers around here.” The party buys some coats for Caleb, Rodent, Valanthe & Azakyn. Billy got a mini-coat for free. Rodent asks about magic shops. The shopkeeper tells him about the business hours and that it should be somewhere on the opposite side of the street and fountain.

They go to the magic shop and find out that the shopkeeper sells replicas of the Garbs of the Eldegroot. The shopkeeper says that if they would’ve had the real deal they’d be rich beyond need unless they had resurrected a friend.

* Valanthe pays for Mithral chain mail armor after Azakyn managed to intimidate/haggle down the price further with the magic shopkeeper.

Diz approaches someone and asks about immortality to which they start to philosophise about it talking about pros cons and just rambling on and on essentially. Suddenly the ground shakes as dust falls from the ceiling, all the people stop and as the rumbling stops they look around worriedly both up and down.

The party turns and asks what the shake was about to the rambling man. He doesn’t seem fazed as he seems to still be talking about the immortality thing. They manage to grab his attention to where he says that lately there's been strange loud noises from the bathhouse, seemingly not humanoid in any case. They ask about how they warm the pools there and if it’s an actual dragon to which the dwarf responds “For all I know it could be but I doubt and hope not.” He also mentions that the hotsprings have healing powers.

The party reaches the Bathhouse, Diz kicks in the door and starts asking the real questions. He manages to intimidate the receptionist with his cloak of flies. “Let me see the manager.” He says determined. The panicked receptionist and leads him to the manager’s office. He enters the room, leaves the room and says. “The manager’s not in.” Diz says “Can we see?” To which the receptionist quickly stands aside. The party starts investigating. “So are you guys like facility inspectors or something?” The receptionist stutters nervously. “Something like that, could I see if the acquisition documents are in order?” Caleb asks. “No large quantities of red meat has been procured to this establishment right?” “No sir!” The receptionist utters formally. Meanwhile Diz inspects the Manager’s office he looks beneath the table around the room and from the closet a cold draft emanates. He approaches the closet and opens it. It’s suspiciously enough empty. He mutters about it being suspicious to which Azakyn looks over before swinging her anchor at it. Through the hole in the closet, a tunnel can be seen. They move the closet out of the way and continue down the tunnel until they reach a fork in the road. The walls and ground around the right tunnel is black. They hear footsteps approaching from the left tunnel that seems to lead towards the outside. “Hello?” Diz calls out. The footsteps stop. “Hell… Hello?” He calls again. “You can’t be here this is private property!” A voice with a dwarven accent booms. “You can’t be here you’re in violation of the law!” Caleb calls. There’s a sudden shuffle from the other party, thinking that they might be trying to run away our party pursues the sound. As they come around the corner they see 2 dwarves and a third one that is clothed like a beggar. The other two seem to be holding the beggar down as he’s trying to escape. They start arguing and after disrespecting the party Diz takes a punch at one of the dwarves. With that the beggar manages to escape as he tries to run away. Azakyn throws her anchor and hooks him back to them, grappling him. The beggar seems very panicked as the two dwarves take a swing at Diz and Caleb, in response Caleb shoots twice with his ol' repeating crossbow after missing the first shot. The fight stops as the ground begins to rumble, the 2 dwarves tries to escape against the upper tunnel leading towards the bathhouse as the tunnel is rapidly getting hotter and hotter...