The Voyage of the Saucy Mare

*From the journal of Theodora Bramblethorn*

## Nightmare Island, Day 2

After a much-needed rest, we were awakened by the most delicious of smells. Though, I suppose any sort of competent cooking smells delicious compared to the travesty that was Rose's stew last night. Note to self, must get Grace's recipe for that fried fish.

Over breakfast, Rose told us about her son, Garrick, who disappeared along with several others the night a giant fireball streaked across the sky, after which The Nightmare started. Time is meaningless in this place, so it's impossible to say how long ago that was... days, maybe weeks. With the fireball came the rats, who we now know are the townspeople.

Mackle went off to explore the town and disappeared. We gathered supplies and loaded them onto a cart pulled by Truth Fist and set off to find him. Panos and Eroin followed Mackle's tracks towards the hill with the cemetery at the top. We knew he was in trouble when we found his boots. Then we came upon a giant rat, which Panos managed to acrobatically ensnare with a net after a short fight. At this point, we were pretty sure the rat was Mackle, so Truth Fist proceeded to turn the netted Mackle-rat into a purse and beat him to his senses, transforming Mackle-rat back into Mackle-elf.

Then four giant bug-things burst out of the bushes. I used Garrick's pan pipes, which Eroin had borrowed from Rose that morning, to summon a swarm of rats to fight the creatures. These creatures seem to emit an impending sense of dread and Truth Fist in particular was affected. They seemed to be afraid of his torch though.

Mackle meanwhile, released from his net, lost control of his curse again and turned back into a rat. I was standing too close and narrowly avoided a bite. Eroin dispatched a bug creature, which shrivelled up in a horrific manner. This seemed to scare the bugs. They started trying to escape, teleporting short distances away. Eroin managed to take out another creature, and Truth Fist stabbed one through the head, assisted by a grapple from Grabthar. The last bug creature got away.

Mackle got his curse under control, and turned into a part rat, part elf. Apparently there are three forms to were-rats: full rat, full normal race, and somewhere in between. In this partial rat form, Mackle can feel an instinctual pull towards the rats' city at the north end of the island.

We continued to the cemetery at the top of the hill to search for the source of the curse. As we went, the sky seemed to get darker and darker, as though night were falling the closer we got. The cemetery was surrounded by a tall fence with an iron gate, rusted shut. Sangamitra and Panos went around the side to try to sneak in by climbing over. Mackle managed to oil the gate sufficiently to get it to open so the rest of us could enter.

As Sangamitra and Panos approached the shrine near the back of the cemetery, it was suddenly engulfed in swirling shadows. The shadows attacked. Eroin shot one with an arrow and it dissipated. Panos quickly fell to the shadows. I lit the shadows with Faerie Fire while Sangamitra tried to save him. Then skeletons appeared.

With a mighty punch, Truth Fist destroyed a skeleton. Sangamitra, inspired by they music of my hurdy-gurdy, threw a vial of holy water like a grenade and took out a monster. Kavanath fell to the onslaught of skeletons and shadows. Mackle took down a skeleton, and Grabthar smashed two skeletons with his hammer. Sangamitra cast Turn Undead and the monsters began to flee towards the cemetery gate, where the bulk of the party was fighting.

Mackle broke away to stabilize the injured Truth Fist. I stabbed a skeleton to death with my rapier as it ran past. Sangamitra stabilized Panos, now free from the swirling shadow monsters, while Mackle ended another skeleton with his shortsword. Sangamitra threw more holy water at the shadow building the shrine had become, which appeared to hurt it. Grabthar finished it off with his hammer.

Suddenly, the remaining skeletons crumbled and the sky lightened. We examined the shrine and were met with a vision of Sister Agat, whose scrolls Sangamitra used back at the town. Sister Agat gifted Sangamitra with a silver amulet from the shrine.

## Day 3

Sangamitra opted to take the amulet back to town to meditate for a time, promising to catch up with the group later. The rest of us helped drag the unconscious forms of Panos and Truth Fist out of the cemetery, and we camped out by the cart for a few hours while we waited for them to wake up. When they came to, we headed north towards the city, with Mackle opting to join myself and the barely-conscious Panos in the cart.

As we went along, we saw a city rise up in front of us. It wasn’t a regular city though. It was enormous, more of a mega-city, and obviously very, very old. How could something this big and obviously ancient be here when Rose said there was nothing on this part of the island?

We came up to the city gate, which, while large, appeared to be somewhat rotten. Eroin seemed quite keen on convincing Mackle to change into his rat form in order to collapse his rib cage and fit under the gate. Apparently this is something rats can do. Instead, Truth Fist simply beat down the door. Except that the door was not a door, just a pile of old wood with the illusion of a gate on top.

We went through the “gate” into the city and immediately noticed that it was getting dark again. Derelict buildings lined the streets. They seemed real enough, so some of the party members decided to explore them. Truth Fist went into one building and got lost in a magical darkness. Panos and Grabthar went in with torches and a rope lifeline to rescue him. The torches were useless in the darkness, and the building seemed to be much bigger on the inside than the outside, but the rescue was successful.

Meanwhile, Mackle suddenly took off. We started to follow him, only to discover that we were being followed by shadows from the building, one larger and three smaller. Grabthar shot his crossbow at the shadows, but missed. Mackle turned into a rat and ran at Panos. I cast Faerie Fire on the shadows and lit the three smaller ones. The small shadows came around the cart and attacked Eroin, who shot and killed one with his longbow. Panos disengaged from Mackle-rat and ran toward the cart. The big shadow flowed under the cart and attacked Truth Fist, who retaliated with a blow from his sword. Grabthar took a swing at a small shadow with his hammer and killed it. Mackle-rat ran up and bit Truth Fist, knocking him unconscious and possibly cursing him as well. I viciously insulted the large shadow. Eroin shot and killed the remaining small shadow, and followed with another shot to the big shadow. Panos captured Mackle-rat in a net. The big shadow touched Truth Fist, and his shadow began to move on its own. Grabthar succeeded in stabilizing Truth Fist. Mackle-rat regained his senses, chewed through the net, and ran into a sewer grate. I unsuccessfully attempted to mock the large shadow. Panos killed the big shadow with a punch, and Truth Fist’s shadow returned to normal.

With Truth Fist not looking like he’d wake up for at least two hours, we attempted to figure out where Mackle had gone. The sewer was rather small, so I went down with a torch and a rope tied around me as a life line. Eroin followed behind. There were three possible directions: left, right, and behind. It seemed likely that Mackle went to the right, so we followed it for a time. It appeared to continue straight ahead, with no offshoots.

Suddenly, a terrified Mackle-rat came barreling out of the darkness at us. After a small kerfuffle, we all stood outside on the street again with Mackle the elf. Mackle claimed not to know what was going on, yet was adamant that he had to continue on and go somewhere, but we wanted to stay and wait for Truth Fist to wake up. In the end, Panos threw another net at Mackle and threw him in the cart. We attached some torches to the cart in an attempt to ward off the darkness. Mackle attempted to plead for his freedom, but we ignored him.

After a couple of hours, we heard a scrabbling sound and felt a creeping dread. I inspired Grabthar with my music and we lined up by the cart. Eroin decided to let Mackle out of the net and shot an arrow in the direction of the sounds, but didn’t hit anything. I tripped the escaping Mackle as he ran past. Two of the strange bug-creatures from before appeared out of the darkness, dragging a were-rat behind them. I inspired Panos with some music, and he moved to block the sewer from Mackle. Grabthar attacked the bugs, taking some damage. Mackle ran up to help Grabthar, but took a hit and transformed into a frenzied rat. Panos threw a dart at a bug but missed. Grabthar smashed a bug with his hammer. Eroin shot one, and Mackle-rat bit one. I grabbed a torch from the cart and ran toward the bugs, causing them to shy away from the light. Panos missed with another dart. Grabthar lands a critical hit, destroying one of the bugs. Truth Fist woke up and threw an axe at the remaining bug, which retreated into the darkness, chased by one more of Eroin’s arrows.

The were-rat the bugs were dragging appeared to be paralyzed. Mackle-rat tried and failed to sneak past Panos. He transformed back into an elf and tried to convince us to let him go. “He is calling me,” said Mackle, meaning the rat king. Meanwhile, the paralyzed were-rat the bugs had been dragging was regaining its faculties, so Grabthar tied it up just to be safe. The were-rat’s name was Harry, and he was able to provide us with some, albeit cryptic, information. The rat king gives orders, and Harry’s orders were to collect something, though he couldn’t remember what. He also said that Mackle hadn’t “taken his place in the city” yet. We asked Harry if he could take us to the king, but he refused, saying that we were outsiders, and we might not make it to the king alive since we were not under the king’s protection. Harry also seemed completely unaware of the bug-creatures. Grabthar released Harry, and we resolved to try following Mackle through the sewers to the king.

## Session 5

Panos and I opted to stay and guard the ~~rum~~ cart while the party went on ahead, but after some time we heard a commotion and decided we should probably go catch up with them. We found them at a forge, which in stark contrast to the city around it was well-lit and well-kept. It was also filled with all the tools and materials a blacksmith could want, and our resident dwarf disappeared into some sort of creative fugue. It seemed safer to leave him be for now.

Mackle and Kavanath seemed very uneasy being in the forge though. They were trying to convince everyone to get moving when Kavanath noticed a growing crowd of were-rats outside. The Piscatonian by the name of Sjivijs that had evidently joined the group commented that really they weren't "where" rats anymore, but rather "there" rats. He is a strange fellow. Anyway, the were-rats were quite adamant that we were outsiders and trespassing in their city and that we should leave immediately. Kavanath, who became cursed during the cemetery battle but was still in goliath form, tried to tell them that he was one of them, rather unconvincingly I might add.

Then some giant rats appeared from the darkness, apparently following the orders of the were-rats the way a pack of dogs might. I stepped out of the forge and lit up three of the rats with Faerie Fire. Kavanath looked like he was trying to transform, so I started playing the pan pipes to help him concentrate and keep control. The crowd surged toward us, and Eroin shot one of the giant rats. Sjivijs cast Ice Knife on a giant rat, causing it to explode into ice crystals and damaging two other rats. Kavanath successfully transformed into a were-rat, keeping control. Sangamitra cast Calm Emotions, and the were-rats fell back a little, though the giant rats did so begrudgingly.

Panos tried to explain to them that we're here trying to help. Mackle tried to persuade them to take us to the Rat King, but they were disinclined to listen to him while he was in elf form. They did, however, back away from the door of the forge, creating a path and allowing us to leave. The giant rats got a few nibbles in as we left. Mackle tries again to convince them, but they are still not interested. I asked them very, very nicely, and they finally relented.

They led us around behind the forge to a house and told us to make ourselves presentable. This involved Mackle transforming into his hybrid form. We went inside and were confronted with several closed doors. Having been told to "always go left," we prepared to kick in the door, so to speak, on the left. Sangamitra hid up on a chandelier, Sjivijs and Panos arranged themselves next to the door, Eroin and I hid under a table, and Mackle and Kavanath prepared to go in. Sjivijs conjured some berries, handed them out to each of us, and we were ready.

Mackle and Kavanath entered the room where the Rat King was sitting. The King demanded tribute. Mackled gave him a berry, and Kavanath gave him an axe. The King was only moderately pleased and demanded to know where the rest of the party was. Kavanath bluffed poorly about the rest of the party being dead. The King called for his guards.

Eroin burst out from under the table, shooting the King twice. The Rat King produced a small bag and pulled out a... well a whole live dire wolf, which attacked Mackle. A guard appeared from another doorway in the main room, and I cast Tasha's Hideous Laughter on him. He found everything quite humourous for a while. Another guard appeared. Sjivijs sprayed poison at the dire wolf. Mackle escaped from the wolf and threw a dagger at the Rat King, hitting him in the face. Kavanath joined in the attack against the King. Panos and Eroin worked together against the wolf. The Rat King then pulled a bear out of the bag. Eroin spotted it immediately as it turned to Kavanath and attacked, causing Kavanath the were-rat to go into a frenzy. The wolf got the upper hand on Panos. Sjivijs sprayed more poison at the wolf, finally killing it. He said something like "remember to spray and neuter your pets." How can he joke in the middle of a fight?

Mackle tried talking to the King, to explain the situation, meanwhile attempting to steal the bag of animals. He failed spectacularly. Kavanath attacked the bear, and Panos tangled with the non-laughing guard. Sangamitra commanded the Rat King to grovel. The bear grappled Kavanath. I summoned a swarm of rats. The guard speared Panos, and Sjivijs sprayed poison at it, but it wasn't very effective.

Sangamitra dove off the chandelier and glided toward the Rat King, taking a hit from the bear as she passed. She placed a hand on the King and used the Remove Curse scroll. He transformed into a human, a boy about the age of fourteen. Mackle attempted a sneak attack on the bear, missed, but managed to get a critical hit with his offhand. Kavanath continued fighting the bear, any damage it could do against him instantly healing. Eroin shot the bear, and as it turned to attack him Kavanath caught it with his hammer, killing it. The guard that had been laughing sobered up and began attacking Eroin. I commanded my swarm of rats to attack the guard attacking Panos, but he shrugged them off and went for Sjivijs. Sangamitra cast Sacred Flame on the guard. Kavanath, still frenzied, bit Sangamitra and suddenly came to his senses. Mackle managed to tie up a guard and Eroin tackled the other. My swarm of rats helped Eroin with the guard and Mackle got him tied up in a net.

Panos and Sangamitra went to talk to the boy that had been the Rat King. He said we may need to go to the shrine across the street. We took him with us to the forboding gothic shrine that oddly seemed to grow larger as we got closer. We talked with him a little about the pan pipes I had and where they had come from, and we discoverd that he was, in fact, Rose's lost son, Garrick!

## Session 6

As we approached the shrine, a portal opened. Kavanath let out a little squeak and disappeared somewhere. I hope he’ll be able to find us later, we don’t have time to be chasing after him right now. We left Garrick outside and entered the portal. Well, Panos, Mackle, Sjivijs, and I did. The others were reluctant.

We found ourselves in a hall adorned with gargoyle statues. On the balcony above us were some lesser shadow beings. Mackle ran up the stairs and threw a dagger at one of the shadows, hitting a stone gargoyle instead. Sangamitra entered the shrine and began creeping up the stairs on the other side of the room. One of the shadows shot Mackle and Sjivijs. I took a deep breath and struck my best operatic note, shattering the statue between two of the shadows and obliterating them with shrapnel. Sjivijs ran up the stairs and Mackle attacked the remaining shadow with his short swords. The shadow began to run away up a flight of stairs, turning back to shoot at Mackle and rendering him unconscious. Sjivijs took out the shadow with a spray of poison and Panos and I went upstairs.

Eroin finally entered the shrine, followed by Grabthar who immediately deduced that the stone that made up the shrine was not natural and probably of a magical origin. Panos stabilized Mackle and we began to explore the room. There was music coming from a hallway with cryptic carvings over the arch. With Comprehend Languages I determined that it said something like “when the six elements combine they shall have power over life and death.”

The hallway had an upper level and a lower level. Panos, Sjivijs, Grabthar, and I took the lower level and came out on a balcony looking over a room where statues were dancing to the music that was coming from nowhere in particular. The Sangamitra, Mackle, and Eroin took the upper level and came out on the same level as the dancing statues, below us. Yes, despite everyone swearing that the paths were straight and level the entire time, we somehow switched levels.

The ground level party began examining the statues. They were all similar except for their masks, which had different elemental motifs. One had water and metal, one wood and air, one fire and earth, and one life and death. It was quickly determined that they had no interest in us. They also appeared to contain some kind of metallic “heart.” Upon closer inspection, we saw that several of these hearts were strewn about the room in piles of rubble. The balcony party began to climb down a rope to ground level (there were no stairs apparent) as Grabthar picked up one of the hearts, saying they were made of adamantium. Panos made it down the rope, and I was half way when I spotted an inscription.

Suddenly the statues became hostile. Sangamitra brandished her holy symbol, dispelling the magical darkness and damaging the statues. Panos pulled at the rope so that I was close enough to read the inscription during the commotion. It was a mantra about elemental metal being conductive, and resisted by wood. I finished climbing down the rope, allowing Sjivijs to finally climb down. After much commotion, Panos destroyed the wood and air statue as well as water and metal, Grabthar destroyed the life and death statue, fire and earth knocked out Eroin who was stabalized by Grabthar, and Mackle frenzied against the statues and killed fire and earth. We collected the hearts from the rubble, seventeen in total, and Sangamitra healed the party.

We decided to travel downstairs, coming up (yes up) to a salon with three-legged tables and chairs, and the bar attached sideways on the wall. Sangamitra found a compartment in the bar containing wine and four healing potions. There was also some writing scratched in the wood that read “the dancers know where the shards are.”

The next room was filled with floating fish skeletons and a circle on the floor proclaimed itself to be the “Ethereal Fishery Emergency Drain.” Nothing else of interest.

In the next room we found six legless chairs floating around a magic circle. An inscription read, “The elemental masks, cracked into three, want to be whole again.” Eroin sat in one of the chairs and a demon appeared in the circle. It ignored us until Eroin asked, “Is it cool if I sit here?” To which it replied, “Yes.” We asked it more questions, figuring out that we were allowed one question per chair.

“Where are the shards?”

“The shards are on this earth.”

“How do we end this nightmare?”

“Establish mastery and dominance over the shard that is here.”

“How do we control the dancers?”

“The dancers cannot be controlled.”

Then Mackle, who had been tackled by Sjivijs, broke free, sat in a chair, and said, “What should I ask him?”

“You should ask me how to prepare for the guardian of the shard.” The demon disappeared.

Panos opened the door to another room and fell into a pit trap. He hit the ground at the bottom and then fell back up, getting pulled to safety by Grabthar. The inscription on the trap door read, “elemental water forms the surface of our thoughts; elemental metal forms the bridge between thought and reality.”

The next room contained a crystal ball on a pedestal and the inscription “elemental water is ever flowing and takes on new shapes contantly; it is resisted by fire.” On the ceiling about sixty feet up we saw some rectangular shapes arranged in the circle.

The next room had an ornate pole in the middle. Sangamitra climbed it and discovered that gravity switched about halfway up. Mackle discovered that the flagstones are buttons that light up when pressed. We followed Sangamitra up the pole and when back to the crystal ball room to investigate the boxes on the ceiling we were now standing on. The boxes contained each member of the party, dressed in death shrouds. A locked door proclaimed that “the elements of the shard are the key.” Another inscription read, “Life is the balance of the elements; the balance of water and metal is our blood.”

## Session 7

We rested a while in the room with the coffins. It felt surprisingly calm and safe, at least, relative to the rest of the madness we’ve encountered. At some point we noticed two additional coffins that we were quite certain had not been there before. One contained Kavanath, the other a gnoll we had never seen before.

We continued our exploration, back through the room with the pole into a new room. It was long like a hall and had a mirrored floor in which we cast no reflection, though it did reflect the ceiling room above us. Or was that the original floor? I can’t remember. Anyway, Sangamitra and Panos travelled up to the ceiling room to examine the paintings on the walls while the rest of us stayed behind. I found an inscription on the wall which read, “When the mask was sundered the balance between the parts was destroyed.”

The room above did not have a mirrored floor, but on the walls hung a number of very realistic paintings, some of which turned out to be portals to the other rooms. The following is a list of the paintings:

* The question room with the legless, floating chairs, but no demon. Portal.
* The room with the pit trap, doors open. Portal.
* The room where we found the crystal ball, pedestal empty. Portal.
* A volcanic scene with an abbey, which Panos said was Mount Caitlin on Tireth. Not a portal.
* A diptych of the pole room. Both portals.
* A floating island over a swamp,, chained down with vines. Not a portal.
* A room full of spell ingredients. Portal.
* A garden of black roses and a poisonous snake. Portal.
* A lilly pond with a sleeping water fairy. Portal.
* Toy soldiers fighting over a castle. Portal.
* The room with nine coffins. Portal.
* A bleak gothic city, much like the one we travelled through to get here. Not a portal.
* A tavern full of people, but if you looked at it just so it became a tavern full of undead. Not a portal.

Sjivijs climbed into the pond picture. Brief experimentation with the pole diptych informed us that the portals were one-way only, so we followed Sjivijs into the pond and waking the fairy. We talked with her a while and she gave us rather vague answers to our questions. She knew about the shards but not where they are, and said the guardian of the shard was a pushover and very cute with four legs, a snout, and wings. She was supremely vague on the size. She also seemed quite enamoured of Sjjivijs, oddly. Perhaps it’s a water thing.

The ceiling of the pond room was the question room. The two doors led to the toy soldier room and the black rose garden. We entered the garden and were almost immediately poisoned by the roses. Grabthar found the snake and Eroin took care of it with a shot to the head. Panos harvested its poison, enough for a couple of weapons or several arrows. An inscription near the snake read, “To prove one’s worth to the shard of the mask you must subdue the mercurial dragon.”

We heard sounds coming from the question room and met up with Bizbit, the gnoll we saw in the coffin. She was just telling us how she had been with Kavanath but recently lost him in some kind of portal, when he suddenly appeared, very wet and yelling about a shark. After he calmed down a bit, he sat in one of the floating chairs. The demon appeared, demanding payment in the form of allegiance for more answers. Instead, he irritated the demon into answering one more question.

“How do we prepare for the guardian of the shard?”

The demon told us we should prepare against disease, and that the guardian attacks with elements.

After a brief examination of the room with the potion ingredients, Kavanath and Bizbit led us to the library where they had encountered some imps burning books. We charged in, surprising the imps, killing two and trapping one. When I asked it why they were burning everything it replied, “It is the will of Amadus.” Then it turned into a spider and ran away. From across the room and through the crowd Eroin shot it in the head.

We collected some of the remaining unburnt scrolls and papers. For scrolls we found Chromatic Orb, Blink, two Cloud of Daggers, Enhance Ability, and Bestow Curse. The scraps of paper seemed to be from a journal, possibly this Amadus fellow. They contain information regarding the six element model, a mask, and shards, and also of something gone wrong. “Should anyone find this journal, I implore you with the greatest of urgency: Find the djinn Daemaeus.”

Bizbit and Kavanath shared the knowledge of a magical telescope they found earlier. We used to explore a little, and found that the floor of the dancing statues room had a map of Tireth. Since “the dancers know where the shards are” perhaps the location of the statues when we entered the room can provide some clues.

We mulled this over while preparing for a long rest, with the cursed members of the party (Mackle, Kavanath, and now Sangamitra) locked into the looping rooms where the telescope was found.

## Session 8

After our rest, Kavanath and Bizbit wrestled with the telescope to get it to the portal while the rest of the party went down the hall to investigate a bedroom. It was richly decorated and filled with large, pearlescent bubbles and one poltergeist who did not appreciate my attempt at Faerie Fire.

The battle was fairly brief, though it resulted in many party members fighting over the bubbles, and Sjivijs was aged 20 years by the poltergeist. He may also have developed an addiction to the pond water he took from the water fairy’s room.

We went through the portal finally. The ethereal fish room contained actual water and fish. Panos took some of the water before Grabthar managed to pull out the plug that existed on this plane. As we continued on to the room with the coffins and magically locked door, I stopped existing in the ethereal plane, followed quickly by the others. Grabthar, I gather, made it to the door, which appeared water-like, and put one of the adamantium hearts from the dancing statues into the lock.

Suddenly, everything disappeared and we were standing in a void. The magical door was still visible, as was a large, shining egg-shaped object. It was, in-fact, and egg, and when Panos touched it, it hatched. Into the mercurial dragon. Also in the void with us were several of the insectoid creatures and Kavanath and Bizbit, who seemed to fall under the dragon’s control and joined our enemies.

I got one good Shatter hit on the dragon before I fell to its devastating breath attack. Panos brought me back with a health potion in time for me to see the dragon transform into three shadowy beings. After a couple of hits, the shadows coalesced back into the dragon and took down poor old Sjivijs. Sangamitra went to help him, and her and Mackle got swept up in the water elemental the dragon had become. Rat-vanath and Biz-rat took down Grabthar. I summoned three swarms of rats to help him but Biz-rat knocked me unconscious again.

When I came to, I was lying on the sand with a lovely, normal night sky above. I’m told that Mackle slayed the elemental from the inside, and that it was quite the thing to see.  It seemed to end the curse. Our afflicted party members appeared to be back to normal, as were the few townsfolk scattered around us looking lost. One of them was Garrick.

There was a crater in the ground nearby that was glowing softly. The glow was coming from two shards, one blue and one silver. The shards began speaking to us telepathically. They said they were an incomplete part of a greater whole, and that they knew where the other shards were. Grabthar named the blue one Jeoffrey, which he took, and the silver one Kevin, which Panos took.

Sangamitra performed a Prayer of Healing and then we gathered everyone we could find and went back to town. In all, about fifty people of the original three hundred returned. Though the island had suffered a great loss, they showed great resilience and a desire to rebuild. They even helped us rebuild our ship once their period of mourning had passed.

## Session 9

We spent about a week in Balmain, resting and helping the townspeople to rebuild. Grabthar taught Rose some smithing techniques and trained some of the people to fight. Sangamitra, Panos, and Mackle worked together to translate Sister Agat’s journal. From Sangamitra: “Her journal describes retirement, but also has mention of old dwarven companian Duran Brickbelly, whose son is after an artefact - a Crystal with something inside. He's also after the Guidance stone she used to journey through planes of existence. She also talks about Shafina Treesinger, sole fellow survivor, who could have been resurrected by a ring that Sister Agat threw in the strait rather than giving to Duran's son. Also, according to local tradition, the spirit of the Tireth Strait is a spirit-spawn of the great Yarrawarna and is commonly known as Dunburra.”

Sangamitra and I presided over the funeral for all the townspeople that didn’t make it back from The Nightmare. As per halfling tradition, I planned a garden for the deceased. Many of the remaining townspeople helped with the planting, and they seemed to appreciate the catharsis.

With everything on the little island generally under control, we turned our attention to the island of Tireth and the barrier across the strait. Sjivijs and Panos, with the help of Jeoffry the water shard, swam out to test the barrier. They reported that it seemed permeable with no ill effects, so we loaded some supplies onto the small boat Captain Katashar had managed to put together and set off for the town of Latrobe.

Past the barrier we were back in The Nightmare, but this time with light and heat. The water became rough and the current swift but with everyone’s help we managed to come up just north of Latrobe. Fizbit, Mackle, and Sangamitra opted to stay and guard the boat while the rest of us went on to the town.

In the town square, there was a confusion of people all yelling at each other about water and fire. With the aid of Kavanath’s vociferous conflict resolution, we determined that there were three factions. A woman named Teresa was trying to organize a party to help evacuate the people of Fort Whiterock to the north, which was threatened by forest fires. A Mr Henrick Loudmouth Dambuilder was more concerned with the low water levels in the local reservoir and wanted to build a dam. Mayor Whitby thought all of this was a lost cause and wanted to evacuate Latrobe entirely.

Sjivijs caused a commotion with a shillelagh to the knees of Teresa and Mr Dambuilder and we managed to get them and the mayor into the quiet of Town Hall to further discuss the issues. We talked for a long time about different ways of potentially solving all the problems, but eventually, we had to agree that there was no grand solution. The best we could come up with was for some people to head across the strait to Balmain where they would be safe, some to stay and begin construction on a dam, and for the rest, 200 or so, to come with us to help rescue the people of Fort Whiterock.

With the help of Mayor Whitby, who perhaps over-sold us a little, we alerted the townspeople to our plan and organized the parties. Our fire fighting party filled carts with barrels full of water from the strait so as not to further deplete the town’s water supplies and headed out into the Heard Wood.

The heat from the never-setting sun was intense and made it impossible to tell when we could first feel the heat of the fires. Panos, with the help of Jeoffry, was able to turn into an eagle and get the lay of the land. He reported that the town was completely cut off and would likely be on fire within the day. Jeoffry indicated that there may be something more than just fire ahead.

When we came upon the fire, and intrepid young man suggested that we douse ourselves with water rather than the road, as we were about to do. Though he was barely old enough to be called a man, he instantly became an honorary member of our party. We travelled on a short distance, and then some of the fire stepped out and resolved into a fire elemental.

While we were occupied, a second fire elemental terrorized the people further back in the line. Kavanath punched one monster so hard in the face it simply went out and Grabthar snuffed out the other with his hammer. In the end, the party suffered 2 villager deaths, an unconscious Panos, and many burns, but we made it to Fort Whiterock.

## Session 10

The Whiterock militia was busy clearing trees away from the city walls to create a fire break. Some unfortunate homes were on the wrong side, and several soon to be homeless families were retreating to the relative safety of the city proper. Dlassarast (Dash) was in charge of the fire fighting efforts and after speaking with him about what help we could offer he recommended we find the merchant-guild leader Knakssha. We left Kavanath and the Latrobe townspeople to help the militia with their fire break and headed into town.

We managed to get past Knakssha’s security detail and crept into the dark building where we found a very sick blue Dragonborn. She sensed Jeoffry and Kevin, and we offered our backstory. She was unsure of us at first, likely due in part to an altercation with Sjivijs, but we won her over in the end. She offered a reward if we could prevent Whiterock from burning, as well as a very generous trade for Jeoffry, which we declined. Based on her account of recent events, it seems that the fires started around the time we killed the mercurial dragon on the island. As a final token of goodwill, she gave us her symbol to show when we might need help around the city.

Next we found the head of the militia, but in the middle of making plans to evacuate everyone to Latrobe, an alarm went off. Three fire elementals had got past the fire break and were heading for the city. We fought to keep them at bay with weapons and bucket brigades, but ultimately the alchemy shop went up in flames and exploded, killing ten people in total.

## Session 11

The fire elementals have moved on, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake. We gathered with the townspeople in the Slaughtered Prince Tavern, one of the few buildings left mostly untouched, drowning our sorrows in ale and the local specialty, kava. Panos noticed the captain of the militia, Craig Steelhammer, slipping away through a secret door.

We followed of course, and none too quietly I might add. We came out in the pantry of the keep's kitchen. We tried to sneak through to the door, but the cook caught us. She admitted the captain had been through recently before husteling all of us out of the room.

Bizbit's nose tracked the captain upstairs to Knakssha's room. Listening in, we overheard him explaining the evacuation situation to the head of the merchant's guild. There was a disagreement and Captain Steelhammer came flying out of the room chased by a lightning storm. Apparently, she did not like being reminded of the previous head of the merchant's guild.

We confronted the captain about his reasons for slipping away and he remained rather cagey throughout the conversation. It was related in some way to the kitchen, though we were not able to determine exactly how. Terrance, the captain's right-hand man, joined us then. In conversation, he mentioned a party that had gone to Mount Caltin looking for another solution to the fire problem, but at a signal from the captain was reluctant to continue. Panos and Kavanath created a distraction so Grabthar could talk to Terrance alone. He learned that they had determined the source of the disturbance was coming from the direction of Mount Caltin, and that the party was led by an Orig Brickbelly.

With the distraction complete, the captain informed us that the evacuation was ready to commence. We gathered our supplies and set out. The journey was relatively uneventful until we were beset by two fire elementals. Sangamitra was able to command one to flee immediately, but it was quickly replaced with an earth elemental. In quick succession, a member of the evacuation party lost their life, Eroin killed the fire elemental, and the earth elemental knocked me unconscious. The latter was then taken out by a group effort and Sjivijs revived me with a goodberry.

## Session 14

Well, everything is a mess. Most of the party is building a tower to slap the sun, whether by pixie charm or by choice. Kavanath has simply wandered off somewhere. Turns out the tower supplies are coming from a bridge we need to cross in order to complete our quest. A sane forest gnome rogue named Arcson Boltnabber has wandered out of the forest to join us though, so that's something.

The pixies were upset with me for trying to ruin their fun, but I did manage to have a somewhat productive conversation with them. Their king and queen are fighting and all the forest magic has run amok. We managed to convince them to take us to their kingdom so that we might help them.

So they shrunk us down to pixie size. Almost immediately we were beset by a toad. Arcson is rather gifted in speaking with animals and creating illusions, and managed to scare it off with a snake illusion. Unfortunately, it was a rather, er, "attractive" illusion and another snake showed up to, um, express its interest. We managed to get away quietly.

We finally made it to the pixie kingdom. I had a chat with some flowers, who were all quite upset with each other for no particularly good reason. In fact all they and all the pixies could agree on was that magic throughout the forest has been "odd" lately. They also told us that the king and queen are missing.

We asked to be taken deeper into the forest, so they turned us into birds to make the journey faster. Sjivijs became a bluebird, Arcson a woodpecker, Katar a raven, and I became a cardinal. We flew to the deepest part of the forest, where we found the pixie queen being attacked by spiders and rushed in to save her.

## Session 15

We rescued the pixie queen from the spiders and the pixies treated us to lavish thanks at the palace, where we learned that the pixies had been having a lot of problems with spiders. The queen tasked us with getting rid of them and we set off. On our journey we were joined by a goblin sorcerer named Crukkets. I wasn't aware that goblins had such powers, but he seemed very sure of himself, and we could always use the help.

We found the spiders, or rather, the spiders found us. Svijivs held them off briefly by trying to talk to them, but then I got stuck in one of their webs and brought the hoard down on us. The spiders nearly got the best of poor Crukkets, and I didn't fare much better, but we won out in the end. We found the king among the pixies the spiders had stashed in their webs.

With the spiders defeated and the king returned home, things seemed to be getting back to normal in the pixie kingdom. The royal pixies thanked us with the gift of a Deck of Illusions. We returned to the rest of the party building the tower to slap the sun and found they had just slain a wyvern! Apparently human ranger name Dismos was a great help in this regard. So much so, in fact, that the dwarf leading the tower constructoin presented him with his magical belt.