Session logs from 2017

These are the campaign and one-shot diaries from 2017. For the previous year, see session logs from 2016. For the following year, see session logs from 2018.

## Session 17: Daeszal

January 8, 2017

Bryn and Ulhirr were placed under Kava Jhoriat’s watch during the funeral ceremony of prince Wranfir, Bryn’s first victim. Creed permanently transformed into a potted plant. Lo-Tha, Kelp, and Willow walked through the city, spoke to a few of the Guardians, and met Ceriax. Ulhirr and Bryn got relocated to a more secure place, where they were imprisoned, as part of Lady Qindra of Silverleaf’s plot to have Bryn killed to prevent Daeszal from returning. With the help of the rest of the party’s arrival, Ulhirr’s athleticism, and Kava’s doubt, Bryn managed to sneak out of Lady Qindra’s grasp, but right into the claws of her griffon Silverwind. Bryn died while the party and a small number of griffon knights chased after Lady Qindra’s majestic steed. Lo-Tha’s warp spear from Gamrion’s Tomb tore a rift in space that Udhros had to spend all his magic closing. Bryn was resurrected by Burbas'Tel and a black dragonborn who set the two elves back on their mission to free Daeszal. Burbas'Tel and Bryn killed Menos Felessa and Burbas'Tel distracted Udhros long enough for Bryn to get to the Old Tree and open a shadow portal, releasing Daeszal. The party was out searching for Bryn when they faded into the Shadowfell, falling victim to its despair. Here, they discovered that Avtoor, Lo-Tha, and Harran had been under Daeszal’s influence for several days. Avtoor warned the others when he managed to break free, but Harran killed him and stalked the party with Lo-Tha. Lo-Tha broke free as well, and helped the others to the portal in the tree, escaping back into the material plane in time to banish Daeszal with a bag of holding. Lo-tha was banished to the Astral Plane along with the demon, keeping him stunned, preventing him from fading back into the Shadowfell. Bryn took his own life with Daeszal's Fang, completing the banishment of the demon. Godric had died, but was revivified by Kelp.

## Session 18: New Adventures

January 22, 2017

The party tried to cope with the loss of Lo-Tha, all the while still confused about Bryn and mourning poor Avtoor. Harran and Elmira left Nrannas early on, but the party stayed in Tauryun for three months, working for the elves and waiting for Udhros to return them the stolen contents of a witch’s bag. Grateful for the help in the difficult new times, the elves thanked the party and sent them through the Old Tree to Dawnfruit in Vallanorn to aid them on their journey. The party left with a mule and a lack of purpose. Months of travel later, they had picked up two new companions: Mehen in Riverrest, and Altruism in Kavaad. This new party travelled to Arrovale to aid with the search for the missing spellcasters.

## One-shot: Tomb of the Thorothan Kings

January 26, 2017

A band of adventurers (Caramip Raulnor, Murad Osman, Vladislak Stayanoga, and Líng Hóngyù) were stranded in the desert of Thorothar and came upon a buried secret under the small, mostly abandoned village of Theristad.

## Session 19: Tubrin the Mad

February 4, 2017

The party met Tubrin (the first missing spellcaster that has returned) in Starpyre Castle, promised the baron's son that they would help find the missing mages and priests, and set off to Makate territory after exploring the cities of Arrovale for a few days. Drana, Gathki, and Anuk approached the party with a theory that chief Kovauk was actually a green dragon in disguise, using the tribe for her own schemes.

## Session 20: Vengeance

February 12, 2017

The party searched for Kovauk in the mountains, and revisited the entrance to the old dwarven mines. They walked through the snowy mountains for several days, but found no trace of the goliath chieftain, who had gone hunting for Garziz the worg. The party met Special Snowflake, alone and without Trufzo. After killing a yeti and resting in some interesting caves, the party came upon most of Narltoc’s hobgoblin warband in a large camp. Upon failing to sneak their way past the ranks of hobgoblin soldiers, the party attacked in full force. Mehen invoked his oath of vengeance upon the evildoers of the world and smote many a hobgoblin, while Ulhirr transformed into his werewolf form, tanking the brunt of the warband’s forces. Altruism threw himself into the fray in a powerful display of rage. The three of them were all knocked out and brought into a small cave system, where Burbas'Tel collected his “blood bags”. The commotion of the fighting and the conjured lightning storms called the attention of a green dragon who was too fast for the remaining hobgoblin shamans and who decimated the warband, killing its worgs, its shamans, and the warlord Narltoc. Willow and Kelp devised a plan with the help of the hobgoblin lieutenant Hragun to sneak into the caves and free the prisoners and kill the dark elf and the dire worg. Hragun died, but so did the dark elf. Altruism, Mehen, and Ulhirr were woken up and freed, but Ulhirr was forced to transform to his werewolf form, in which he ate parts of the other prisoners and Hragun. Altruism took up the dark elf’s spear…

## Session 21: The Baron of Balzamar

March 5, 2017

Altruism took up the dark elf’s spear and chased the dire worg Garziz. Aback Willow’s horse shape, Altruism closed the distance and slew Garziz with the dark spear, instantly attuning to it, and gaining its curse, as well as its powers. The party briefly visited the Makate tribebefore heading to Barendain’s monastery, finding a petrified Abiran Alzur on their way there. Aknarr Graw then sent the party to Kavaad to attend the appointing ceremony of the new baron of Balzamar in his stead. In Kavaad, the party met Fholtarr Thunderblood, who joined their party after Willow was named warden of Syllior and the Salt Coast. Mehen left the party on grounds of their association with the new baron, Eknoron Zerevil, an infamous iron dragonborn. Charles joined the party after befriending Kelp in the Silver Slums.

## Session 22: Secrets in Syllior

April 1, 2017

Willow was now the warden of Syllior and the Salt Coast, and moved in in Longstrider Citadel with her adventuring friends. She was given very few responsibilities in the first few weeks, but she was involved with the midwinter festivities. On midwinter’s day, the Warden of Hoghill Forest and his rangers arrived with a warning and a strange plan. They told Willow never to trust Eknoron Zerevil. A servant in the citadel was found snooping on the war room, and wearing the symbol of the Cult of the Shadow. Dalion was gone (because he was out in the city, looking for a magical item that Charles had stolen from the Honey Pond Mansion), and the guards were put on full alert. Most of the party hurried to find Dalion, and when they did, they found themselves surrounded by the Ashen Fist.

## Session 23: To War

April 14, 2017

Dalion, Ulhirr, Charles, and Altruism were surrounded by members of the Ashen Fist, including Krogan. With Willow and Fholtarr arriving not long into the fight, the party managed to fight their way out of the ambush. They then spoke with the local blackhand, “the Black Kraken”, about the Cult of the Shadow and the Ashen Fist. They left with a peace agreement and yet more unanswered questions, especially since Krogan vanished without a trace. The midwinter festivities went well, and the new warden seemed to impress her court. Eknoron Zerevil called his warden and her knights to battle to rat out the Red Hand and retake Tradefall and restore the castle. The party agreed, and travelled on foot to the city of Tradefall, where they parlayed with the Hand of the Hand, and decided on a battle plan. They would strike at night.

## Session 24: Tradefall Traumas

April 30, 2017

Charles killed a young man in a watch tower, and was traumatized by a zombie carrying the Fel Scepter from Gamrion’s Tomb. With the help of Sir Estos, the party successfully sneaked their troops up to the northern side of Tradefall, where Akkorak, Sir Estos, and a handful of the party’s members scaled the wall and entered the ruins of the burning castle. The castle contained invisible echoes of the past (and future?), mimics, and fiery undead creatures, as well as a few magical items some of which were infused with wild magic. Wild magic continuously messed with the party, and Fholtarr was polymorphed into a sheep.

## One-shot: Ceremonial Daggers

May 7, 2017

A group of lonely souls were brought together and hired by the Golden Hope to inspect a shady town for demonic cults. In their search for evil, they discovered a mean, racist pimp of a nobleman who was using exotic humanoids in his brothel, and working with the secret cult, and they killed the pimp. They also almost died to rats.

## Session 25: Chaos

May 21, 2017

Fholtarr was restored from his sheep form, the party found the grand archive of the burning castle, and there they encountered Rhea Avoran, who hesitantly joined them with assurance from Sir Estos that the party could be trusted. Akkorak, Charles and Altruism went into the chaotic plane of the Soulstone. The party looked through the temple to Ontogwi, and eventually Kelp and Ulhirr entered the plane of the Soulstone as well. After many oddities, and a trial against the protector spirits of the Soulstone, the party escaped the chaotic plane. Akkorak Firestorm had the Soulstone, and many of the party members had contracted curses of wild magic. The party emerged from the ruin in time to join the fight and turn the tide of battle against the Red Hand. Eknoron thanked the party, and Vizharr took the Soulstone to Kerrum.

## Session 26: Back Into the Flames

May 31, 2017

The party celebrated their victory with Lord Balzamar and the soldiers. The party decided to go back into the ruins of Tradefall Castle with Rhea and search for treasure. Here, they battled a terrible demon and found out that Rhea was the last heir to the previous baron.

## One-shot: Nameless

June 9, 2017

After Bryn's death, he was propelled into a shadowy realm within the very being of the shadow demon Daeszal's soul. Here, Bryn reconnected with his royal cousin Wranfir, who thought himself to be fever dreaming and experiencing nightmares in his sickbed. Calming Wranfir and explaining the truth of the matter, Bryn gained the forgiveness and trust of his first victim. Bryn wrested the knife from his torso and felt powerful, almost alive, but Daeszal spoke to him through Wranfir and the realm itself, and took the dagger away. Daeszal moved from the Astral Plane to the seas of Arborea, making all the shadows' emotions stronger, despair was strengthened, but Bryn managed to calm Wranfir again. After this, Bryn found his latest victim — Lightkeeper Menos Felessa— and woke him from his dark slumber. Menos retained the golden glow in his eyes, but appeared to be weakened and in pain, still covered in the symbol of concealment that Bryn carved into him.the Lightkeeper was in affect and quickly became angered. Furious at Bryn, he refused to speak or cooperate for some time. Bryn explained his intentions of freeing those descendants of the four heroes' that he had slain, and hesitantly, Menos agreed to let Bryn help him find the other two. Bryn managed to find Leonara Meisent, whose left eye still glowed, like both of Menos', marking their weak connections to the light and life of the world outside the dark prison of Daeszal's design. Leonara quickly devised a plan to use Bryn for good, now that she realized what had transpired. The princess united Wranfir and Menos to aid Bryn in his endeavor to escape from Daeszal. Wranfir wanted to pass into the afterlife peacefully, Leonara wanted to return to her people and responsibilities, but Menos was still caught up in his hatred for Bryn, when Bryn left to find Theia. Bryn went into the endless darkness of Daeszal's soul, encountering the shadows of souls he had slain with Daeszal's Fang.

Lost in darkness and despair, Bryn drifted for hours... or days.... no, months. He didn't find Theia, but after a terrible fit of desperate rage in response to countless hours of apathy and dread, Bryn shouted into the void and found at first nothing, but then soon managed to call forth Daeszal's Fang. However, at this point, he had found the faint light that he experienced before with Wranfir and the others. Bryn could have taken the dagger, but chose to seek out the light.

When he ventured up into this purple glow, he witnessed the vibrant skies of Arborea, and he longed for life and color. Not soon after, he noticed that once again, as had happened in the deep sapphire sea of Arborea when he first entered this shadowy place, he was peering through the eyes of the demon. Before, he had seen Lo-Tha's heroic last stand. Now, he saw a happy elven couple, sitting in the woods of the Olympian Glades, enjoying their heavenly life of bliss. Bryn had to bear witness to the death of this man and woman, as they died, screaming silently to their gods. The woman was with child. Bryn called out for Daeszal to stop, then once more for his own victims. When he finally found his was back to them, he found himself unable to reach them, hearing only words of evil in his own voice. Bryn saw Theia in the distance, but could not scream out to her or the others. Drawn back into the darkness, Bryn was forced to battle the part of him that had surrendered to Daeszal's gifts.

Nearly being absorbed by his demonic clone, Bryn tried to talk himself out of his evil. The other Bryn had Daeszal's Fang, and a deep red glow in his eyes. This other Bryn taunted him with words of doubt, temptation, hatred, and isolation. The two parts of this one soul fought stubbornly, and cunningly, but only one could prevail here.

When the possessed Bryn fell, Daeszal rose from his place and tried to take the dagger back and slay Bryn, who had escaped his prison and gone into the Shadowfell where Daeszal now seemed to be as well. The two flew up over a ruined reflection of Nrannas, where a sliver of the Old Tree remained. Looking into the eyes of the shadow demon, Bryn lost his resolve and gave up for a moment, falling back into the soul prison.

When he returned to Leonara, Wranfir, and Menos, many new shadows had joined the ranks of Daeszal's captives, but Theia was still nowhere to be seen. Menos had very nearly lost all the glow of his once brilliant eyes, and it was now clear to Bryn that he had indeed been gone for more than a couple of days. Menos explained that there might be a way to escape, through the connection of the four heroes, using the unity of their descendants, and latching on to a connection outside the shadowfell. However, Menos' dark thoughts where empowered by the demon, and the once graceful Lightkeeper suddenly wrought chaos among the shadows. Leonara guided Bryn and Wranfir away, and helped Bryn to find Theia. As Bryn walked, guided only by the faint green light of Leonara's eye, he experienced walking through the river valleys and marshlands of Theia's homeland, and had visions and feelings come to him. The sensation of walking on swamp water, as with Willow by his side. He knocked his head on a branch, recalling the bash on his head Kelp gave him with a book after he told her about his pact with Daeszal. Then, he had the unmistakable sensation of being watched and judged, as by Lo-Tha's gaze. Thinking this presence to be Theia, Bryn called out, urging her to help save the lost souls. As if by wild magic, a red moon appeared in the sky, full and ominous, and before he could react, Bryn was attacked and toppled by a massive armored werewolf. Bryn was blinded and his vision blurred, went red, then disappeared.

He then awoke to the feeling of company. Theia had come to him to see if he truly meant what he had said. Assured of Bryn's honest intentions, Theia agreed to come along, and joined Leonara and Wranfir in returning to Menos for the last piece of knowledge on their method of escape.

In his last moments of control and devotion, Menos gave his light and connection to Soliel away. Leonara explained that Bryn had to take this light if he wished to return. Wranfir still wished for his final rest (btw, he revealed earlier that he had also read in the forbidden books about Daeszal), Theia was determined to find her brothers, and Leonara felt obligated to return and guide her people, as "none could replace her in her important role". Bryn took the light and became Galad, as Menos faded to a shadow only. Galad closed his eyes, and spoke with Soliel Felessa, whose dryads sang and whose light shone brightly, even to Galad in the heart of shadow. Soliel forgave Galad on the condition that he would continue on the path of light. She then promised to send someone to help those trapped by Daeszal, as Galad asked her to help the others over him, apologizing for taking Menos' life. Galad opened his eyes to see Leonara, Wranfyr, and Theia illuminated, not only by Leonara's green eye, but by a golden light coming from himself.

## Session 27: Exhaustion

June 11, 2017

After escaping the ruins of Tradefall Castle and talking to the Ontogwites and the Ashen Fist of Tradefall, the party caroused their way back to Syllior. On the way there, Charles stumbled into the Feywild where he met a hideous hag and a number of one-eyed animals. OH! And Ulhirr died from exhaustion, and Fholtarr started researching wizard aids! Willow’s steward also assembled a council for the citadel and the ward.

## One-shot: Masks and Phases

June 27, 2017

The pwelean high elf Aramil Liadon defeated Peland the weretiger curse weaver and formed a bond with a moon spirit from the holy forest by the temple to Sehanine.

## One-shot: Simulacrum

July 4, 2017

AU Nørd Camp Edition, in which Horgrol Deepriver acquired the fourth dagger for his ritual to summon Nefathat the Dark Glutton.

## Session 28: The Bard

July 12, 2017

Charles’ brother Paul Castlemoor messed with the party and kept evading them and tricking them. Like Charles, Paul had stolen magical items from the Honey Pond Mansion, except, Paul had stolen ALL their items, and was doing all kinds of evil things just to impress his beloved hag back home in the Feywild.

## Session 29: Tall Tales

July 13, 2017

With the help of Arydun, the party apprehended Paul Castlemoor and got some answers from him. As Ulhirr asked Arydun for help against Daeszal, Arydun gave him a small opalescent gem that contained their blessing. Paul was returned to the Feywild, but not before his action caused even more problems — now the party was involved with yet another fiend [we shall call this one Tagless]. At least they got the Honey Pond Mansion’s items back, and got rid of Ozfurt.

The party then made their way to Elmira’s abode in Kerrum where she had asked them to meet her. Elmira told the party of the events of the one-shot “Ceremonial Daggers”, continuing the story to the point where the other adventurers finished their quest, and only a few of them had escaped Horgrol Deepriver’s house with their lives and minds intact. With the demon Nefathat still roaming the town of Shiv, the party decided to join Elmira in her quest to defeat the gluttonous servant of Daeszal.

## Session 30: The Wolf

July 14, 2017

The party defeated the demon Nefathat, and returned to Kerrum, where Ulhirr and Charles started the Keithand (their spy network). On their way to Kerrum, the party fought a group of bulettes, and Ulhirr discovered the nature of Arydun’s blessing as he sprang into action in his werewolf form, which neither Charles nor Fholtarr had seen before. After some time spent arguing, brooding, and shopping, the party decided to find Vizharr, and when they told him that they had the last piece of the Soulstone, he teleported them all to Tradefall, where they went into the castle once again, fought the Soulstone’s protector spirit, and restored the Soulstone, ending the effects of the chaotic wild magic within the castle. Eknoron announced his plan to become duke (which entails conquering land), and Vizharr took the Soulstone with him once more.

## One-shot: Adventures of Willow and Ulhirr

August 9, 2017

Willow and Ulhirr's first adventure took them to the Isle of Death, Eenhaven, and Windovel. This is also when they first met Valhirr, Fabulan, and the Blackscale Clan.

## Two-shot: Wishious Mockery

August 9 and 10, 2017

Soliel’s chosen heroes followed her into one last battle against the forces of evil on the island later known as Tol'Anar, the Island of the Sun.

## Session 31: Dark Tidings

August 13, 2017

Greyhand Viskhart refused to hand over the prismatic pearl that Fholtarr found in Tradefall Castle, but was willing to part with it if the party gave her whatever was inside the box that the newly appointed Greyhand Cassador had received from Shiv[this item was, of course, Daeszal’s Fang]. The party didn’t want to deal with Viskhart, but did take an interest in the people who had come all the way from Shiv. Admiral Viviel Onnurai had captured the Black Kraken, which left a power vacuum in Syllior. This allowed Greyhand Cassador to take over her branch of the Ashen Fist and convert them to the Cult of the Shadow. Ghoulish assassins attacked Eknoron, Willow, Trissana, and Vizharr in a coordinated, but futile attempt on their lives. This was seemingly motivated by a disloyalty to some “great master” on Eknoron’s part. Having freed the Black Kraken, the party went to her inn to look for Cassador and to root out the Cult of the Shadow.

## Session 32: The Ashen Fist

August 14, 2017

Greyhand Cassador was revealed to be possessed by Akaloth, a shadow demon in service to Daeszal. As the party fought him and his followers, including Argenon the Oathbreaker. Akaloth nearly killed Altruism with Daeszal's Fang, but the Dark Spear prevented Altruism’s death, but in that moment an angel emerged from the spear, where it had been held captive. The angel killed Habla Seafroth and burned down the Ashen Fist inn. Cassador and Argenon were both killed by Charles, but the collapsing building nearly killed Ulhirr. The angel left them in the dust and flames and flew away. The party followed the angel northwestward to Kavaad, where Ulhirr was willingly drowned and revivified in the temple to Ontogwi after he was given their sacred weapon, Wave. Charles was briefly possessed by Daeszal's Fang, while the party searched under the Heavenly Dome of Strength for the Cult of the Shadow and the angel. Kelp stayed behind in Syllior where Habla was successfully resurrected.

## Session 33: Dreams

August 15, 2017

Persephone joined the party, after they saved her from the Cult of the Shadow. The party chose to help Umina the dryad and sailed to Tol'Anar aboard The Mirage. Each of the party members experienced strange dreams. Willow prayed to Mannanan Mac Lir that he would guide them on their journey and protect them in their dreams. Charles and Ulhirr hired Gerk and Erky for the Keithand. Charles, Ulhirr, and Fholtarr played hide-and-seek in Ulrond's Harbour, and there was a brief peace, with shopping, games, and a dragon encounter where no one knew the dragon was actually a dragon. The party arrived at the minuscule harbor town on the southern coast of Tol'Anar. The party was attacked by perytons on their way up the Sky Tree with the dryads.

## One-shot: What the Heck

August 24, 2017

The lost prince of Heck is a drunk and his only three friends are two half-elves and the wine of their elven ancestors. The location of Heck is forgotten, and between the remaining minions of a long gone necromancer, and the black dragon under the island, its denizens are not exactly welcoming.

## Session 34: Tol'Anar

September 17, 2017

Having arrived on Tol'Anar, the party flew to the top of the Sky Tree and spoke to its keepers, the dryads, who spoke of a ritual to secure the souls in Daeszal’s possession. To succeed without allowing the demon through as well, each of the souls must be trapped elsewhere when they are pulled free from the demon’s grasp. The party also heard of the trouble caused by Belara and the cloud giants. Willow talked to the people on the island, and tried to repair an ancient shrine to the elder elemental gods, but the shrine remained in ruins. Without the shrine’s full effect, the Sky Tree can’t connect very well to the Plane of Air. The party briefly met the cloud giant Drutor after a peculiar encounter with two of his courtiers. Unable to use the soul bag of holding without the hag that made it, the party went to look for a soul trapper spider in the Spider Forest. The party met Shuibhne and had a brief encounter with Eclavistra the drider. The party defended itself from an attack by spiders.

## Session 35: A Web of Lies

October 8, 2017

The party, accompanied by Fienna, Shuibhne and a smoke mephit, waited until the darkest hour of the night to meet with Lady Eclavistra and be led to the soul trapper spider. After some fights with the local spiders, Shuibhne ran off and the party was lead to Lady Eclavistra's lair, where they discovered Eclavistra's tragic past with her former lover, Shuibhne. Eclavistra was cursed by Lolth for her relationship with Shuibhne and she was transformed into a drider. Eclavistra then cursed Shuibhne and took his mind away to keep him from being heartbroken upon seeing her as a drider. Deep within the drider's lair, the party gave Eclavistra some relationship advice in payment for a soul trapper spider encased in amber. With Persephone's newfound wand of web, the spider could be used once to trap a soul. The party narrowly escaped the lair and burned down the Spider Forest before taking a rest on Cran the Treant's hill.

## One-shot (non-canon): The Door Flies Open

October 15, 2017

A group of women working in the Milestone tavern had a strange couple of days around the harvest festival and were called to adventure.

## Session 36: Whispers and Witches

October 29, 2017

After escaping the drider's lair and burning the Spider Forest, the party went to rest on Cran the Treant's hill. From here, Willow witnessed a giantess controlling the weather and stopping the forest fire from spreading all across the island. After the party had rested well in the afternoon, two giant ravens landed on Cran and his hill. The ravens cawed at the party and listened intently for their reply before leading them up into the clouds. As the party followed these birds, Willow — in giant eagle form — spotted a lone necromancer drawing lost souls out of the drider's abandoned lair and chaining them to his wizard's staff. Willow and Altruism pursued the ravens above the clouds, while Ulhirr took the others back down on the flying carpet. The necromancer walked out on a lake and drew from it a burning ring, before he presented himself as Alamond Castlemoor from the Royal Academy of Arcane Studies in Mythhold. Charles, wanting to learn more of his family, enquired the man about House Castlemoor, and learned of their ancestor Rhilin Farspire. Alamond also spoke of the powerful magics on Tol'Anar, specifically the Ring of Nauron, which he had drawn from the lake.

The party on the ground followed Alamond toward Sunharbor when swarms of spiders ran through the forest, and the sounds of something enormous and something scared surrounded them. Shuibhne, more bird than man, ran to Ulhirr and Charles squawking for help, as he slowly transformed, limb by limb, into a bird with a man's face. Alamond put a paralyzing levitate spell on Shuibhne, tied him up, and handed the other end of the rope to Charles. Convinced that Alamond was possessed, Charles stole the ring while taking the rope, only to find that the ring had placed itself on his finger as he slid his glove back on. Under Nauron's influence, Charles developed pyromania and started flailing his flaming longsword about. Ulhirr took the rope and dragged Shuibhne behind them, much like Alamond dragged five specters in ethereal chains from his staff.

Meanwhile, Willow and Altruism sought out the giantess that had saved the forest from the fire, and landed on her cloud among the many ravens around the giantess' hut. The two were eventually invited in by the cloud giantess, and offered a deal, that would allow them to use the Soul Bag they had acquired in Tauryun.

The party on the ground was set upon by Lady Eclavistra, who trapped Ulhirr in webbing and yanked him into the treetops with Shuibhne following behind on the rope. They fought only briefly before Charles set a tree ablaze, which started a fire that quickly went out of control. Eclavistra kissed Shuibhne, who then returned to his normal self with his soul and mind intact. Remorseful and angry, Shuibhne did not forgive Eclavistra, and instead chose to return to his homeland a scarred and bitter man. With a little help from Alamond, the party escaped the fire, which was later put out by the same cloud giantess as before.

Up in the witch's hut in the clouds, the giantess first conjured a green hag and spoke with her at length in the language of the giants. Then she warned her two small folk guests to hide behind her boots and avert their gazes, before she conjured a red witch who spoke through thunder and lightning. Despite the warning, Altruism looked and was nearly taken by the red witch's charms. As the giantess summoned the night hag creator of the Soul Bag, she asked the the small folks' decision on their offering, and so Willow sold the last breath of her current life to the cloud giantess called Lagma. The night hag appeared and was forced to help the party use her bag to trap one soul of their choice. She now follows Willow around through the Ethereal plane. When Lagma returned from having stopped the second forest fire, she and her guests went to sleep.

The next morning, Lagma lowered her hut down to the grassy hills where Alamond had set up a magical dome to protect the party on the ground. When the party was back together, Alamond went his own way and Lagma and her ravens returned to the skies. From here, the party tracked down a powerful undead that Willow had sensed while communing with nature: the remains of Belara the Blight Maiden, encased in an enormous gelatinous cube. The cube destroyed the carpet of flying, disfigured Ulhirr, and turned Altruism to shadowy mist, but eventually, the party managed to defeat Belara, the cube, and some skeletal minions. Among the slimy remains of the slain undead ooze, the party found a number of items, including the Helm of Blath. Lord Blath was Kalrath's chief lieutenant and the Death Knight that killed Nauron and made him a vampire, so Nauron wanted the helm for himself and for Charles. Amidst their victory, a darkness gathered around the party. Something had happened, and the Veil of Shadows was nearer than before. A hushed voice called out from the trees. A single word of warning was uttered: "Gwathren" (elvish for "shadow").

## Session 37: Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies

November 13, 2017

The party set up camp in the dark forests of Tol'Anar, and Charles (still under Nauron's influence) and Willow went to scout the area and gather firewood and food since their rations had been infested with spiders. In the cold dark night, the trees whispered of shadows in the wind, and a lone dire wolf stood listening and smelling for something. Sneaking around the wolf, Willow and Charles found some draconic creature in the woods, and the wolf and this creature spoke in an unfriendly manner. As the wolf threatened the other creature, which appeared to be a young green dragon when Charles and Willow attacked it. The dragon insisted on only being there to peacefully seek out “Temperance”, a shapeshifting dragon disguised as a golden tiefling, but when attacked, the dragon retaliated in full force. Thanks to Willow’s earthbind spell, and Charles’ relentless assault empowered by Nauron, the scaly beast was brought low. As the young dragon fled however, it was killed by Ulhirr Raskulfelt, who was coming to aid his friends in the battle.

Before running off to get help from the dryads, the great wolf had warned Charles and Willow against killing anything on the island while under the cover of darkness, as the evil of Kalrath still lingers within the earth. The wolf gave Willow a spirit hymn to call a spirit of the forest to bind the dragon, but when the spirit caught the dragon, it was too late, and the death of this mighty creature attracted the attention of a nearby spirit possessed by Kalrath’s evil.

Back at the camp, Percy left to lend her aid to the others, and ran through the underbrush of the cold dark woods, while Altruism stayed behind and watched over the party’s equipment. As the dragon had been killed, Charles surrendered control to Nauron in order to burn the dragon away, possibly attempting to prevent it from returning in undeath. A sinkhole appeared and swallowed the dragon whole, nearly trapping Charles within the earth along with it. And when the three hesitated to flee as they discovered the area was an ancient temple to the elder gods, now converted to the worship of Kalrath, the evil spirit rose from the earth in its elemental form, and with it, a small army of animated skeletons. The spirit towered over our heroes, and the ground shook under its immense weight.

Back in the material plane, the huge earth elemental nearly crushed Willow before shifting its focus to her friends that came to protect her. Even as Willow destroyed the skeletons with lightning strikes, more and more bony minions crawled from the earth to attack. Ulhirr was knocked out by a great punch from the evil elemental, and though Willow healed her comrades as quickly as she could with her druidic words, she could do little to save her friends. The earth elemental put its whole weight onto Ulhirrs head… to make sure he was dead, and the skeletons came in to pick the remains apart. Charles fell as well, but disappeared through Nauron’s vampiric tricks. Willow was forced to flee on the wings of her eagle form.

Unable to reach her friends in time, Persephone was lost in the Feywild echo of Tol'Anar’s forests, where a host of quicklings (tiny fey tricksters) played around with her until she proved her worth to them by vandalising an ancient temple to the elemental elder gods. After spending some time by a half-buried temple, the halfling cleric of Hermes figured out a way to enter the temple’s sanctum through a sequence of turnable faces in the temple’s four obelisks around her. Once she was within the sanctum, the doors closed above her and left her with only a great door in a stone wall.

Willow returned to the camp, where she found not only Altruism and the unhelpful smoke mephit, but also a nightmare and its rider — what seemed to be a still-burning Charles with orange motes of flame for eyes and a much too calm demeanor for the current circumstance. Charles’ dead body was possessed by Nauron and thanked Altruism and Willow for their aid and understanding before riding off into the night, leaving only the crisp remains of one of Charles’ hands for his friends to keep. Altruism and Willow — both traumatized and grieving — packed up the camp and set out to find Percy.

Through the ominous double doors in the sanctum of the elemental temple, Persephone found a series of underground caves and tunnels on the material plane. Here the greater earth elemental was performing a ritual on the corpse of a young green dragon, animating its dead remains and instilling it with the evil of Kalrath. Spotting Ulhirr’s disfigured body, she snuck in unnoticed and recovered Ulhirr’s remains and equipment, which she managed to escape the tunnels with thanks to her crafty use of spells and the help of the forest spirit that Willow had called upon to capture the dragon. Percy, Altruism, and Willow were reunited and determined to bring back their adventuring companions, so they set course for Sunharbor to see if the local druids could help in any way.

In Sunharbor, the three found little help. The druids had next to no materials after Belara’s betrayal, but did offer up what little they had. In the local inn, they met a golden tiefling by name of Temperance, and pieced together that this man was probably the other dragon that the young green dragon had talked about. Temperance was solemn and preoccupied with his thoughts, but did let on some draconic behaviors. After a meal and a rest, the party went to the Sky Tree for help, narrowly escaping a wyvern attack, and found that something terrible had happened. The healer, Myara, whom Charles had surrendered Daeszal's Fang to, had apparently succumbed to Daeszal’s whispers and released a single soul through the tree: one called “Gwathren” (meaning shadow in elvish). Luckily, the other two candidates for the title of Lightkeeper — Anorfin, the Flamecaller, and Zanna, the Crusader — had arrived recently and were helping the dryads deal with Myara’s “mistake”. Willow sensed an air of falseness from Zanna, and warned the dryad Umina to watch the gnomish crusader. The dryad Folyana then let Alt, Percy, and Willow through a portal, transporting them via plants to Dawnfruit, the Tree of Healing.

Upon arriving in Vallanorn, the capital of the wood elf kingdom of Enedorei, the trio were met with open arms, but little material help outside of some holy water and a shallow ritual bath. The elves of Vallanorn left them in peace to complete the casting without interruptions. Ulhirr’s headless body — which also lacked at least one leg — was placed in the bath, and magical offerings were made to replace the traditional oils and salves involved in the casting of the reincarnate spell. In an emotional moment, Ulhirr was brought back in the newly formed nude body of a stout halfling woman. Rejoiced by Ulhirr’s return, the party spent some time preparing for another casting to bring back Charles, using the burned hand Nauron had gifted them. When the ritual was completed, and a pale goblin body had sprung into existence next to the burned hand, no life came into the body. Charles’s lost soul had been given a choice: the ever-alluring offers of the mysterious jackal fiend, or a return to his brave friends. In the end, Charles chose the fiend.

## Session 38: In the Dark

November 19, 2017

With Ulhirr returned, though in the form of a female halfling and without lycanthropy, the party quietly mourned the loss of Charles. In the dark of night, Persephone carried out a divination ritual from her room in a tower in the beautiful elven city of Vallanorn. As Percy completed her ritual, asking if "Crocus" was still alive, a light appeared in the window of a nearby tower. Confused and mournful, Percy went to bed without a clear answer.

On the next day, while walking through the arching limestone and ivory streets of Vallanorn, Percy attempted another divination spell to learn how best to find Charles. At her offering, a snake the only she could see or hear slithered up an old tree and pointed to Nrannasin the west. At Ulhirr’s request, Percy also divined for a way to find a werewolf. This time, sounds of footsteps led her and Ulhirr to two elves, one of which was a high elf hunter of lycanthropes, clad in blue armor, grey robes, and a silver mask.

The high elf guided the halfling women to a temple to Sehanine Moonbow, where the elf expected wererat lycanthropes to hide during the current new moon. In the temple, the elf interrogated and killed a human wererat and extracted his memories of their supposed werewolf leader who was hiding in the forests to the north. Ulhirr and Percy went with the elf on griffon back out in the forest near the mountains to the north. In the woods, Ulhirr and Percy went ahead of the elf and were distracted and surrounded by wererats. Ulhirr was bitten and contracted wererat lycanthropy. With Percy’s dimension door spell, the two halflings escaped back to the high elf who reluctantly cured Ulhirr of the curse. The halflings then hurried into the werewolf’s cave as their high elf ally held back the tides of wererats and swarms of rats.

Within the cave, Ulhirr attracted the werewolf with an imitated wolf howl. An enormous bestial creature with glowing red eyes and a frothing mouth of jagged teeth emerged from the darkness, dragging a massive greataxe across the stone floor. A tiny rat with similarly iridescent red eyes then crawled atop the werewolf, seemingly puppeteering the large lycanthrope. Ulhirr convinced the rat to have the werewolf bite him. Having what they came for, the two halflings escaped in the night as the high elf and the werewolf squared off. Meanwhile, the curse-weaving rat escaped to one day rebuild his network of servants.

A werewolf once more, Ulhirr started to go by Ragna, attempting to accept their small new feminine body.

The party went through the healing tree Dawnfruit to the old mother tree Nimlaroth to seek out help in locating Charles’ soul. In Nrannas, Udhros offered his help and was surprised to hear of the problems on Tol'Anar. Udhros also informed the party of the death of Soliel’s daughter Helieth Felessa. Through the guidance of Hermes, Percy received a conjuration-based spell scroll from Udhros, unbeknownst to the archmage. The party went through the dryad trees to Tol'Anar with Udhros leading the way. On the lightkeeper's balcony near the Sky Tree's canopy, Udhros and the party confronted Menos' three apprentices, Anorfin the Flamecaller, Zanna the Crusader, and Myara the Healer. Myara had apparently been influenced by Daeszal's Fang and released a dark spirit through the Sky Tree's connection to the demon. Luckily the damage on the tree was minimal, but now the spirit called “Gwathren” wielded Daeszal’s Fang and roamed free on Tol'Anar. When Zanna heard about the evil earth elemental empowered by Kalrath's evil raising a young dragon into undeath, she promptly jumped from the lightkeeper's balcony atop the Sky Tree to go hunt these powerful evils.

With a silver bird cage of soul trapping supplied by Udhros, Lady Eclavistra's soul-trapper spider captured in amber, and the night hag’s soul bag, the party only needed one more way to trap a soul before they could save all four souls from Daeszal's grasp. Knowing that his dark spear could imprison a soul, Altruism went to gain the necessary training from the spear’s previous wielder, Burbas'Tel.

Meanwhile, Charles was walking the planes with “Tagless" the jackal fiend. They eventually made it to Sigil, where they shopped magic items at “the Friendly Fiend” — a shop owned by another jackal fiend called A'kin.

Udhros teleported Percy and Alt to Westermarsh, where they teamed up with Burbas'Tel for a month. Alt abandoned the elements to better wield the power of the spirits, giving up his Elemental Rage in favor of Spiritual Rage (currently limited to Necrotic Rage).

Ragna (or "the artist formerly known as Ulhirr") was teleported to Kavaad, where they spoke with Apo'Otu about the church’s teachings and the migration of the tradefallian Ontogwites. Ragna then journeyed to Syllior to keep an eye on the Longstrider Citadel and explain the situation to Dalion Sohl and the Longstrider Council.

Needing some time to herself, Willow went into the Feywild, where she sought out the great faerie courts of winter and summer.

## One-shot: All the Single Ladies

December 4, 2017

Ragna Bluering signed up for the grand tournament in Kavaad's Arena to pass the time, make money, and test out her new body in combat. Ragna made it to the finale, where she fought against the reigning champion, Domine — an imposing warrior of great strength and skill. After a tough fight, Ragna eventually defeated the champion fair and square, but the masters of the arena intervened through subtle use of magic, giving their champion a chance to fell Ragna. Domine was declared the winner, and Ragna was cheated out of 2000 gold pieces, but Domine allowed Ragna inside her chambers and relayed her situation to the halfling. Kassiopeia Domine's parents have been protected by (or rather, from) the Ashen Fist for years, with protection money payed through means of Domine's earnings in the arena. The two had their conversation interrupted when one of the masters came to give Domine a target for an assassination mission on Callum Ferngreen II, and though she pretended to agree to the terms, she and Ragna rested and planned their escape, in which they would save Kassiopeia's parents and bring them to Syllior. The plan almost worked without problem, but in the early morning hours, the arena master and four of his guards tried to arrest the pair, who then had to fight their way through the buildings, and sneak into the Silver Slums to gather Kassiopeia's orc mother and human father and convince them to follow the plan and go to Syllior. As they reached the docks and boarded the ship Ragna had arrived in, the group set sail for Syllior, where they arrived two days later. In Syllior, Ragna and Kassiopeia acquainted themselves with the aristocracy through means of carousing, earning some gold in the process. Ragna also became the first democratically elected member of Lady Willow's Longstrider Council.

## Session 39: Soliel's Light

December 13, 2017

After a month apart, the party returned to Tol'Anar to aid in the ritual to save the four souls that Daeszal had trapped in a shadowy realm. Willow had spent more than a month in the Feywild, and Ragna had recruited one Kassiopeia Domine to the party in their time of need.

Before the ritual was to begin, Altruism wanted to test the powers Burbas'Tel had taught him in the forests of Westermarsh, so Anorfin and the party went to the remains of the Spider Forest to seek out Eclavistra's old lair, where Alt had seen the spirits of long-dead cultists. The test went well, and a soul was captured in the spear. When Alt released the soul he hesitated for a minute before consuming the specter and gaining its mana, unlocking his psychic rage.

Now the party was ready. They had collected four soul-trapping objects, and were ready to head into the shadow realm to retrieve the trapped souls. The dryads of the Sky Tree initiated the ritual the next morning, and Udhros set up a number of barriers to protect the extraction team from Daeszal. The island of Tol'Anar was still ravaged by the stormclouds of the cloud giants' palaces, and the grand ivory tower of Kutbar the Sorcerer was slowly closing in on the dryad tree. As Kutbar's cloud crept in from the northern skies, the forests beneath whispered their windswept warnings: "Kalrath".

A dark portal opened in the Sky Tree from the Lightkeeper's Balcony and into Daeszal's prison, and as Menos' apprentices and the tree's dryads looked on, the party stepped through — Kassiopeia first, then Altruism, followed by Willow and the halflings, Ragna and Percy. In the darkness, they saw a faint light where Soliel's Light had shone above them in the canopy of the Sky Tree, and this light seemed to trail off into a thin line, which they then followed. To illuminate their way, the party made a light or lit a torch, casting shadows into the void of the dark realm, and alerting the demon of their presence, if he didn't already sense them. The party had their shadows possessed and animated to attack them, but managed to prevail. With Ragna's heigtened sense of hearing, they could tell illusions of light from the true light that connected the souls to Soliel's Light, but on their way there, they were met by a shadow far greater than the ones they had fought before — the corrupted soul of Menos Felessa, whom they thought they were sent to rescue. Instead, they were forced to battle and vanquish his very soul to free him from torment, and to free the other souls. In the battle with Menos, Altruism was wounded and reduced to his mist form, preventing him from using his spear, and reducing the number of souls they could save by one. Upon finding the shadowy entities that were the trapped souls of Prince Wranfir of Tauryun, Princess Leonara Meisent, and Theia of the Riverfang Tribe, they also found a fourth soul: the soul that was binding them all to Soliel's Light. With Ontogwi's gift of awakening, Ragna could reach out to the souls and speak with them one by one, and learned that the fourth soul was a servant of Soliel, by the name Galad (Elvish for "Light"). As the party returned to the portal from inside the shadowy realm, their minds started to faulter and give in to madness, resulting Percy and Kass being separated from the others and falling into dreams of madness and corruption.

Willow, Alt, and Ragna made their way out onto the Lightkeeper's Balcony with three of the four souls rescued, but outside, the valley of the Sky Tree was under attack by undead and elemental spirits, roused by the cloud giant Kutbar and possessed by the evil of the ancient lich Kalrath. Not to mention — there was a zombie dragon and two skeletal wyverns there as well.

Altruism's mist form followed the dryad Umina through a *teleport via plants* door opened by her sister Folyana to the Old Tree in Nrannas. Here Umina ran off with Udhros' silver cage containing one of the souls, as Altruism was left to float about the city, eventually getting lost in the feywild and encountering an unmarked grave that seemed to have been emptied. Next to the open grave was a small silver cage. Altruism took the cage and returned to the streets of Nrannas, where he met a masked high elf, who took little notice of him and said little more than "the moon has many names", when asked if he worshipped Ontogwi. The high elf then *dimension door*'ed up onto his royal griffon mount and flew off into the west. Altruism finally decided to return to The Old Tree so he could get back in the action. In the grove of the Old Tree, he was met by Umina and the newly resurrected Galad, who were also on their way back to Tol'Anar. Since leaving the shadowy realm of Daeszal's domain, Altruism had not known reality from dream and delusion, and his exhaustion was starting to set in.

Meanwhile, Kassiopeia was haunted by nightmarish visions in the shadowy realm, unsure of what was real and what wasn't. In her visions, orcs asked her to lead them in Gruumsh's name, and she refused. Then the orcs became demonic and followed her to battle, calling her war chief and screaming demonic chants. When she finally came to from her visions, she was with Persephone, but Persephone seemed off at first and became only increasingly maniacal during their encounter in the darkness. Percy attacked Kass, but was subdued before they were both extracted from the dark by the cloud giant witch Lagma. As they appeared in the dying forests of the valley of the Sky Tree, Percy remained hostile, but was now bound to Kass, as Lagma flew off in her huge raven form to fight Kutbar. Kass, carrying Percy over her shoulder, grabbed hold of her pike just in time to jab it into the tail of the young green zombie dragon that came flying right over their heads, only barely hanging onto the dragon, and climbing her way up its body.

While the Lightkeeper's apprentices protected the tree by firing spells at the skeletal wyverns and smiting the undead ground forces, Willow took the shape of a giant eagle and carried Ragna on her back, heading for Kutbar. On their way, the zombie dragon attacked them, leaving Ragna in the dragon's claws, and Willow pursuing the cloud giant sorcerer on her own. Kassiopeia eventually lost her grip on the still-mad Percy who was luckily caught and taken to safety by Lagma's giant raven form, as Lagma had given up her hunt for Kutbar. As the zombie dragon was struck in its head with Kassiopeia's wyrmdrinker pike, the pike was sated with dragon's blood, and Kass could then force the dragon's movements, steering it toward the earth elemental, which appeared to animate the dragon. The elemental caught on to this, and refocused its energy from the dragon to the ground forces, causing the creature to plummet to the ground — with Ragna and Kass still on it. Ragna transformed into their hybrid werewolf form, and crawled into the dragon's open ribcage, bracing for impact, and clawing her way out once they had landed. At this point, Zanna joined them to finish the job on the dragon, which was now regaining energy in its newfound proximity to the earth elemental.

When Altruism returned along with Umina and Galad, it was just in time to save the last soul before the portal closed, but Daeszal had broken past Udhros' wards and nearly got to Altruism before he escaped with the soul of Prince Wranfir (I seem to have gotten some of the details wrong here, because Alt spoke to Wranfir while he was in Nrannas, right?). The evil earth elemental had taken cover underground and was attacking the Sky Tree's roots, infecting it with necrotic energy. Udhros devices a plan to lure the elemental out so that he could teleport it out of the ground and into the reach of Ragna, Kass, and Zanna, but when the elemental died, the damage was already done, and the Sky Tree was dying, and Kutbarwas coming to claim Soliel's Light for his own, despite his run-in with a very disgruntled Willow Stormborn.

As the light was being ripped from the dying tree by the flying cloud giant sorcerer, the party slowly closed in on Kutbar to stop him before he could kill the remaining dryads and claim Soliel's Light for himself. Udhros disappeared for a while, telling the party that he would return shortly with one of the island's protectors, and as Kutbar was draining the light, and bombarding the party with pieces of it, torturing Willow with an excruciating word of power, and degrading the "smallfolk" before him, Archmage Udhros Orixidor appeared through a portal on the back of the ancient gold dragon Loromalog. Willow and Galad dived after the genie lamp that Kassiopeia had wrestled out of Kutbar's hand. Altruism defended the last dryad in the tree from an invisible air elemental. Ragna and Kassiopeia gauged out Kutbar's eyes, only to find that he could see through an arcane eye in his staff. But, they had done enough damage for Loromalog to come in and bite Kutbar's throat out of his neck, killing him and letting his dead body fall from the skies. Willow and Galad narrowly dodged the falling giant after retrieving the genie lamp, and the party was now left with a choice. The lamp had one wish left, and Udhros warned them that a wish is not without limitations or costs. They could save either the tree, and thus also the protection of the local Ley lines; or they could restore Soliel's Light, which had protected the land against evil for half a millennia. In the end, Udhros was the one to word the wish, restoring the light, but not without the help of Galad, who completed the light's restoration after the archmage's wish had altered reality to a lesser extend.

When the fight was over and the tree had fallen, Soliel's Light still overlooked Tol'Anar, and as the day came to a close, Lagma returned a restored Persephone to her friends. Percy cured Alt and Kass from their madness and magical derealization, and continued taking care of herself as Lagma had instructed, so as to clear her mind of her recent traumatic experiences. Yes, that means that Persephone forgot everything that had happened to her since her time with Alt and Burbas'Tel in Westermarsh.

Willow, who had noticed the runes on her armor lighting up each time one of the evil greater elementals had been slain, wanted to hunt down the last remaining elemental. Searching for the air elemental, she communed with the broken land of Tol'Anar, which was now influenced by all the inner planes, as the Ley lines were unraveling quite violently. With the help of Lagma, the party found their way to Drutor's gardens and his palaces in the clouds, which had flown through a large portal to the plane of air. Here, the party bartered for the elemental, and were offered a quest to retrieve a rare specimen of a magical creature that Drutor wanted to add to his collection.

1. ↑ Well, it was actually Marigold for a lot of that time.

## Session 40: In the Clouds

December 30, 2017

The party agreed to the terms of their trade with Drutor the Collector and accepted his quest to retrieve a rare magical creature from his fellow cloud giant nobles Unvar the Commander and Istma the Cunning. After a bountiful feast in Drutor's great dining hall, the party went to Lagma's secret hideout among the kenku that live in the Aaracokra Stairs in Drutor's garden paradise in the clouds. Here they plotted their heist on Unvar's Aerie, choosing to take the long way in, thus gaining the maximum information while having minimal interactions with the dangerous frost wyverns.

Before setting out on their mission, the party retrieved and defeated the air elemental that Drutor had promised them. This caused the final set of runes in Willow's armor to light up, signalling a change in the armor's abilities, and an attunement with the elements that wasn't there before.

The first attempt at the heist left Percy and Ragna stranded inside the final vault, wherefrom they almost managed to escape with both some treasure and their quarry, which was trapped inside a magical egg the size of a human head. Pursued by Unvar, Ragna had to surrender the egg in order to escape with their lives, so they had to try again. Before that, though, they were met by the Sun Wolf, a protective nature spirit of the island, which had once served the guardian of the elements, who once bore the armor that Willow now donned. The Sun Wolf explained this, and told the party that it was dying after a fateful battle with the entity known as Gwathren, but in the fight, the wolf had managed to banish Gwathren never to return to the island as long as Soliel's Light shines. In its final moments, the spirit of Tol'Anar called Galad "Lightkeeper", and found rest in the ancient stone circle, causing a grove of wild nature to spring forth between the standing stones. The party decided to explore the island for a week before making another attempt at the egg in Unvar's floating castle. In this week, Altruism disappeared, Ragna discovered the consequences of untangling Ley lines, Willow found a forgotten druid grove, Kassiopeia came upon a lost temple while spelunking, Persephone received a sending with information from one of her secret contacts, and Galad saw his shadow, Gwathren, in the waves at sunset. In the cover of night, the shadow went east to Thindrel.

The second time the party attempted to steal from Unvar's Aerie, they had been more thorough in their planning, but they no longer had Lagma to help them. Willow and Percy made it up to the aerie, and Percy made her way into there by sneaking into the wyvern dens and using her *dimension door*spell to teleport in and out of the vault. This way, Percy acquired the egg and escaped on Willow's back, but when she had done so, she shared with the party what she had seen inside the vault: Altruism was chained up in there. As soon as Percy had regained her spells, a rescue mission was initiated, in which Percy had to beat Altruism to death so his vampiric spear would turn him into mist form, and he could float into Percy's bag of holding. It took Percy 72 seconds of beating Altruism over the head with a mace to accomplice this, and then they were discovered by the giants who nearly stopped them, which could very well have been the end of both Percy and Alt. In the end, though, the mission was a success, and Drutor paid the party handsomely with the following magical items: one pair of winged boots, a luckstone, a potion of growth, an immovable rod, and a cloak of protection.

## One-shot: What the Heck II: New year's boogaloo

December 31, 2017

A group of treasure hunters stumble their way onto the unwelcoming island of Heck, but manage to deal with its deadly inhabitants, eventually overtaking and improving their wine-based business emporium, which relies on the presence of a black dragon's lair.

For campaign and one-shot diaries from the following year, see session logs from 2018.